What are the primary virtues for a person to have in their character?

Ethics by Geoffrey

Eleven questions to be asked of ethical theories:

 

  1. What is the highest good (summum bonum)?

 

  1. What is the general nature of virtue (excellences of human character)?

 

  1. What are the primary virtues for a person to have in their character?

 

  1. How are the virtues acquired?

 

  1. How are humans motivated psychologically?

 

  1. What are the basic intrinsic goods of human life? (e.g. goods which are valued for their own sake)

 

  1. What are the external goods at which humans aim?

 

  1. Are there any unconditioned goods in human life?  (An unconditional good is something that is good without any qualification or condition put upon it– it is something that is always good.)

 

  1. What is the human purpose in the cosmos (if there is any purpose in the cosmos as a whole)? 

 

  1. What method is the proper method to use in attempting to establish proper norms of behavior and character?

 

  1. What are the difficulties that this theory faces either internally as a theory or with respect to applied ethics?

 

 

Aristotle’s ethics

 

  1. What is the highest good (summum bonum)?
    1. Eudaimonia (happiness is the rough English equivalent) Aristotle’s definition of Eudaimonia “activity in accord with virtue in a complete life with the necessary external goods.”  The answer could also be put in the following terms:  “the highest good is life lived in accord with reason (practical wisdom), which develops and nourishes the virtues, and guides action in accord with the virtues, in such a manner as to obtain a life as rich as possible in external goods and as complete as possible in terms of length.”
  1. Virtues– the cardinal virtues of courage, temperance, practical wisdom and justice.
  2. Complete life– living out a life of normal length
  • External goods (in order of importance)
    1. Friendship (also includes family)
    2. Honor (meaning the respect others give to you)
    3. Bodily goods (health, good looks etc.)
    4. Wealth
    5. Noble birth

 

  1. What is the general nature of virtue (excellences of human character)?
    1. Two types of virtue
  1. Intellectual virtue– the habit of properly discerning the golden mean in a situation.
    1. The mean is the midpoint between two extremes. Generally speaking the extremes can be characterized as excess (too much) and defect (too little).  The mean is like Goldilocks’ “just right.”
  2. Moral virtue– the disposition of the desire to prefer the mean and habitually seek it.
  1. Both types of virtue go together in right action—the intellect discerns the mean and the disposition desires the mean.

 

  1. What are the primary virtues for a person to have in their character?
    1. The cardinal virtues
  1. Courage– the cultivated preference for the mean between extremes of fear and confidence (e.g. not too much or too little fear, not too much or too little confidence)
  2. Temperance—the cultivated preference for the mean between extremes of insensitivity to pleasure and over-indulgence of pleasure
  • Justice– the cultivated ability to follow laws and norms of society that are constructed to allocate social goods for the purpose of living well together in a community (not taking more of the goods that society would rightly offer you or not taking less).
  1. Practical wisdom (phronesis) the habit of rightly discerning the mean in life in such a fashion as to preserve the virtues and obtain the maximum of goods for oneself and one’s community (including both the larger state as well as the immediate family and tribe).

 

  1. How are the virtues acquired?
    1. Through the active practice of virtues repeated over time, these habits become part of a person’s character, a second nature.

 

  1. How are humans motivated psychologically?

 

  1. What are the basic intrinsic goods of human life?  (E.g. Goods which are valued for their own sake and not for the sake of anything else)
    1. Many things are intrinsic goods in Aristotle’s scheme–here are a few– knowledge, honor, pleasure, friends, and amusements

 

  1. What are the external goods at which humans aim?
    1. There are many things that make life good, that are outside of a person’s choice.  Aristotle distinguishes between goods of the body and goods of the soul.
    2. Two goods of the soul are of primary importance and Aristotle believes that they have a proper ordering.
  1. The first and most important external good is friendship (Aristotle, includes family relations in friendships.) In part friendship is a virtue, insofar as it is dependent upon my choices and my character to be friendly. However it is also outside of my control in that my friend may choose to be a good friend to me or to be a poor friend.
  2. The second most important external good is honor. By honor here, Aristotle means the respect given to me by others.  This is partly in my control in that I can choose to be worthy of honor; however insofar as people’s opinions of me are out of my control and may be governed by gossip, slander, meanness etc—this good is external to me.  If we lack the honor of others, it hurts our own happiness.
    1. The goods of the body are many and Aristotle does not take trouble to elucidate them all.  Here is a partial list: good health, good looks, money, good birth (into a noble family) etc.  Having these things are important and helpful to happiness. Lacking them, may entail damage to our overall happiness.

 

  1. Are there any unconditioned goods in human life?  (An unconditional good is something that is good with out any qualifications or conditions put upon it– it is something that is always good.)

 

    1. All the goods in a life may possibly come into conflict with one another– there is never a guarantee against the possible tragic choice in which one key good is traded off for the sake of another
    2. Insofar as virtue is an important part of life and desired for its own sake it is as close to an unconditioned good as there is.

 

  1. What is the human purpose in the cosmos?
    1. Humans are between the beasts and the gods; their highest function consists in living in accord with political virtue and contemplating the divine order of the universe.
  2. What method is the proper method to use in attempting to establish proper norms?
    1. Epagoge is the single word answer to this question and it roughly translates as induction.  Aristotle thinks that the method we use in science and ethics is similar.  Science begins with a series of generalization based on experience—for example we see star fish, make some initial generalizations test and correct the generalization in a continuing process.  In the same way as children we look to our parents to understand virtue.  Our early generalizations may be crude but as we grow older we refine these.  If we start out with bad parents or a corrupt society we are in a very bad situation, according to Aristotle.  It would be like if we started studying starfish by studying deformed starfish that were living near a toxic waste dump.  However because induction does have a corrective mechanism built into it, it is possible that a person could begin with a set of bad generalizations and self-correct to attain a better notion of virtue.  (This is possible, but we might say unlikely).
  3. What are the difficulties that this theory faces either internally as a theory or with respect to applied ethics?
    1. Accusations of the naturalistic fallacy.
  1. Many accuse Aristotle of a false belief that there is a purpose or nature within us. Even if there is a nature, the argument goes, why should it be good to follow it?  For example, if nature makes us aggressive, does it follow that we should be true to our nature?  Why is it ethical to follow our nature as rational creatures?  Why should we single out reason as our “true” nature?  Perhaps we are less like a hammer (or something that has a single purpose) and more like a swiss army knife with multiple purposes.  If we have multiple purposes, rather than a single unified one, why should we follow one of our parts rather than another?
    1. How does a person choose between conflicting virtues or between virtue and other goods– are there principles that need to be brought to bear in making tragic choices?