BSB111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Kantian Ethics, Virtue Ethics, Ethical Egoism
Week 3 Business Law and Ethics Lecture Notes
Ethical Agents
Virtue Ethics
• As we have seen, the morality of actions can be evaluated in several ways, such as by
considering their consequences (ethical egoism and utilitarianism) or whether they
are consistent with certain rational principles (Kantian deontology) or moral rights
• However, while there are strengths in each approach, there are also significant
weaknesses, so that none of these approaches gives us a fool-proof way of
determining ethical actions
• An alternative ethical approach focuses not on individual actions and the rules that
could guide our actions, but on the agent (the person) and his/her character
• This approach (called virtue ethics), asks three central questions (Stewart,
p.57):
o What is the good life for me as a human being?
o What kind of person should I want to become?
o How do I achieve both of these goals?
• In the Western world, Virtue ethics has its roots in the philosophy of Plato and
Aristotle. We will consider four elements of Aristotles approach and how it can
be applied to contemporary business issues:
1. Function, goals and the good
2. Flourishing
3. Virtues (or excellences)
4. Developing the virtues
1. Function, goal and the good
• Observing nature and human behaviour, Aristotle believed that all things have a goal
or function, and that in order to perform this goal/function well, certain virtues or
excellences are needed.
o E.g. The function of a golf club is to hit golf balls. In order to do this well (and
be a good golf club), it will need to have excellent size, weight, balance and
material.
• What excellences are needed to be a good Student? Manager?
Accountant? Marketer?
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2. Flourishing
• Aristotle thought that humans, like everything else, have their own goal or function.
His task was to identify this goal and the virtues/excellences that would be
associated with a good human
• He considered various alternative goals, including pleasure, honour, and wealth, but
rejected these.
o Pleasure as an ultimate goal ignores the distinctive ability of humans to
reason,
o Honour and wealth are usually pursued for some further purpose, so are not
ultimate goals
• Aristotle argued that the ultimate human goal is flourishing, and that this is best
expressed as ongoing activity in accordance with the virtues/excellences
• He identified a number of intellectual virtues, including:
o Knowledge, Craftsmanship, Wisdom
• He also identified a number of character-related or moral virtues, including:
o Courage, Justice, Self-mastery, Generosity
3. Virtues (or Excellences)
• Aristotle did not provide any rules to guide our behaviour. However, he did provide
the doctrine of the mean, that applies to most of the character-related virtues
• According to the doctrine of mean each virtue/excellence represents an appropriate
(emotional) response in a particular area that is an intermediate between two
extremes
o One extreme is excessive, the other is deficient
o These two extremes are referred to as vices
• Some examples of character-related virtues:
• Another virtue: JUSTICE, relates to giving each person what is their due, and is
contrasted with only one vice, that of acquisitiveness or greed.
• There is no easy way to determine what the mean is in any given situation, and
Aristotle believed that it will differ from person to person and from situation to
situation
• He provided some general guidance, such as:
o As one extreme is usually worse that the other, aim for the least worse
alternative
o Consider your own tendencies and inclinations, and aim for the opposite
extreme (to balance these out)
o Be careful of following what gives us pleasure and avoiding pain, and these
may not be good indicators of the mean
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary
Week 3 business law and ethics lecture notes. In the western world, virtue ethics has its roots in the philosophy of plato and. The function of a golf club is to hit golf balls. Marketer: flourishing, aristotle thought that humans, like everything else, have their own goal or function. When determining what an appropriate response to a situation might be, we can ask, (cid:1688)what would my role model/mentor do? (cid:1689) Strengths and criticisms: some of the strengths of virtue ethics include, provides a broader moral framework than approaches that only focus on individual actions. He gave them ten different dilemmas and interviewed each boy for 2 hours about these dilemmas: one of these dilemmas is the heinz dilemma . Heinz(cid:1685)s dilemma: heinz(cid:1685)s wife was dying from cancer. A drug had been discovered by a local chemist but he charged ten times the money it cost to make the drug and.
