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Deontology Criticisms

Deontology Criticisms. Too absolutist, inflexible, severe - no exceptions to moral rules Assigns no moral value to attitudes, feelings, or actions motivated by them Pessimist about human nature (egoism). Deontology Criticisms. Assumes all rational people will agree on moral principles

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Deontology Criticisms

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  1. DeontologyCriticisms • Too absolutist, inflexible, severe - no exceptions to moral rules • Assigns no moral value to attitudes, feelings, or actions motivated by them • Pessimist about human nature (egoism)

  2. DeontologyCriticisms • Assumes all rational people will agree on moral principles • Ways to cheat with the categorical imperative • Kant’s conclusions don’t necessarily always follow his principles, e.g. suicide, prostitution

  3. DeontologyCriticisms • Doesn’t tell you what to do when two duties conflict • The consequences do seem to matter in extreme cases

  4. Virtue Ethics Defines ethics in terms of • the good person vs. the right act • the characteristics of an ideal individual • successful living

  5. Virtue Ethics • Based on human nature • Goal of life = Eudaimonia (success) • Mistranslated “happiness” • means doing well what you were meant, designed to do. • Teleological system (based on purpose, function)

  6. Virtue Ethics • Purpose or Function • What is a good X? • What is it supposed to do? • What is its characteristic activity or function? • What sets it apart from other things? • What characteristics allow it to perform its function well?

  7. Virtue Ethics Purpose in nature (teleology) The purpose or function of • The eye: to see • The heart: to pump blood • A fin: to swim • Bacteria: to decompose

  8. Virtue Ethics Plants • Nutrition • Growth Animals = plants plus… • Sensation • Locomotion Humans = animals plus… • REASON

  9. Virtue Ethics • Aristotle defines Man as the rational animal • What he does characteristically, uniquely and best is rational activity

  10. Virtue Ethics • Goal of life = success, actualizing one’s natural potential • Humanity defined by reason • Success for humanity therefore defined by intellectual activity

  11. Virtue Ethics • The ideal life = scholar, scientist, intellectual • This life best actualizes one’s potential as a rational animal

  12. Virtue Ethics • Aristotle is a realist • Being an intellectual requires certain things • Friends to philosophize with • Not being hideously deformed • Wealth for food, servants, avoiding non-intellectual work (i.e. manual labor) • Avoiding serious illness or financial ruin (luck)

  13. Virtue Ethics • Do natural things have purposes? • Can you discover their purposes by looking at what they do? • If human beings have purposes, must they be the same? • Is what humans do characteristically or best REASON?

  14. Virtue Ethics • Virtue (arete): A Disposition of character which lead to success (eudaimonia) • Disposition: a tendency to act a particular way

  15. Virtue Ethics • Virtue is a mean between the extremes of excess and deficiency. • Virtue is learned through good upbringing and practice as an adult • One learns courage through attempting to act courageously • No distinction between the good life in the natural and moral senses

  16. Virtue Ethics Virtue means doing something at the right time in the right amount. Example virtues: Courage, Temperance, Honesty, Pride, Generosity Christianity • Added Faith, Love, less emphasis on reason • Replaced Pride with Humility, Servitude • Made Poverty a virtue

  17. Virtue Ethics • Ethics empirically justified • No egoism/altruism dichotomy • What’s good for you is good for others • Aristotle understands the role of unquantifiable judgment

  18. Virtue Ethics Criticisms • Underlying teleology - purpose in nature? • Is there a virtue for every moral value? • Is Aristotle universalizing his bourgeois intellectual values or those of Greek culture?

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