PHI 130 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Moral Luck, Virtue Ethics
16 Jun 2016
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Virtue ethics: how we ought to be, not so much what we ought to do (develop your virtues: eudaimoneia living a good life. Virtues: admirable traits: being just, generosity, courage, intelligence, loyalty etc Vices: immoral behavior, sins: envy, gluttony, greed, vanity, anger. Being a virtuous person: you have to value honesty (or any virtue) rather than just intending to be an honest person. The golden mean: (aristotle) all virtues were located between two vices: vice of deficiency (cowardice) (cid:0) Wisdom is the fundamental virtue according to aristotle: it is the ability to find the right balance (of the golden mean) How relative are virtues: different people may need to focus on different virtues based on their position in society, or culture etc Moral theories tell us what to do but virtue ethics tells us how to be not what to do .
