PHI 1120 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2.1: Eudaimonia, Virtue Ethics
16 Sep 2016
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Document Summary
Working professionals are likely to encounter a wide range of ethical issues. For aristotle, we are able identify the character traits that should govern our actions only by first identifying the ultimate goal, or end, of human existence. Virtues consist of a set of specific behavioral traits that effectively propel us in the direction of happiness. Vices are behavioral traits that lead us away from happiness. From hobbes, we are introduced to an amoral world in the original state of nature: according to him , there are no moral restrictions, everyone is entitled to everything, including possession of others. Utilitarianism, shares some similarities with the virtue theory in that it has teleological focus and identifies happiness as the ultimate aim of the moral life: focuses on specific actions and their consequences. Aristotle was one of the two greatest greek philosophers of ancient times his ethics is devoted to an examination of happiness and the good life.
