PHILOS 2YY3 Chapter Frankenna: Reading 20 – Frankenna "A critique of virtue-based ethics"
3 Apr 2018
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Reading 19 frankena a critique of virtue-based ethics . Agrees with the virtue-ethicist in the importance of character: yet argues that the nature of the virtues can be derived only from right actions or good consequences. Aka, for every virtue there must be some possible action to which the virtue corresponds and from which it derives it virtuosity. Ex: the character trait of truthfulness = a virtue because telling the truth is a moral duty. In short: there exists a relation of correspondence between principles and virtues. We need to take an interest not in moral principles but rather moral values: what is morally good or bad. Morality is often concerned with virtues but virtues are things that are not wholly innate: they must be acquired by teaching / practice. We should not primarily concern morality with principles or rules but rather with the cultivation of disposition / traits of character.
