PP217 Chapter 1: Supplementary Notes - Virtue Ethics Winter 2019 Medical Ethics
Document Summary
The normative ethical theory that stresses the importance of moral character. Rather than focusing on principles for choosing the right action, ve studies the development of those traits which make us moral. The right action is the one done in accordance with the virtues. The virtues go back to the ancients, and their use in ve goes back to plato and aristotle. The virtues are deep character traits, or dispositions for action in many situations. They are, for aristotle, the golden mean of dispositions. They are multi-track dispositions, i. e. character traits are reasons for action in a large number of cases. There are some things that are not virtues, because there is no mean for them. No mean for adultery; no mean for assault; etc. These things are defined by a kind of pure extreme there is no good measure. Thus, if the categorical imperative is imperfectly summed up by the golden rule (see.
