PHIL-386 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Virtue Ethics, Eudaimonia
7 May 2020
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Virtue ethics: virtue ethics doesn"t give any universal rules or principles to follow. Rather the emphasis is on developing our character, with stable virtuous traits. The idea is that if we have a good character, then good actions will follow from that character: virtue ethics. Aristotle is the key theorist in virtue ethics. Greeks had a teleological view of human life, i. e. there is a natural end toward which human life is directed. This end is determined by the function proper to human beings, and consists of performing that function well. All human action is aimed at some end or good (teleological). Happiness or eudaimonia is our final supreme end or good. Not the feeling of happiness but flourishing in life. In order to achieve this end we must perform our unique function well. What is distinctive about humans is our ability to reason.
