Personal virtues as ethical tests

1. Personal virtues as ethical �tests� Most persistent with the Greek �Big Three� Socrates: What is the good life? Focus on �success� as the pathway to happiness, prosperity & contentment Ethics (individual concept) and politics (group concept) were synonymous Plato: How does a good society lead to a good life? Focus on �justice� as the pathway to happiness, prosperity & contentment People had distinct roles and could develop only into that role into which they were born (social immobility). How does this impact the concept of being �good�? Aristotle: How does a good individual contribute to a good society? Focus on �reason� as the pathway to excellence, leading to happiness Believed in a discrete list of virtues that all should habitually develop: open, honest, truthful, moderate, and proud

2. That sounds pretty simple�what�s the problem? Objections to �virtue ethics� Who defines those terms? What about outcomes? Is it ethical to be �truthful� if the truth devastates other people involved? (main ethical objection to whistleblowing) What about the fakers and the choosers? Gap between �espoused� and �enacted� Picking and choosing when to be virtuous More recently: what about context? Ignores situational context as a moderator to ethical decision-making Puts pressure on the individual to deflect forces such as culture, incentives and comparisons (competition)

3. When good people do bad things Bottom line: we see �good� people doing bad things� how might we understand this? Multiple examples of how context, culture, and norms strongly influence our behavioral decisions Bystander syndrome (diffusion of responsibility) Pharmaceutical reps & prescription-writing behavior McCabe et al.�s research findings We resist the idea that we, alone, do not determine our own behavioral decisions Attribution theory and self-serving bias come into play Although research has found some evidence of a �predisposition� toward being able to overcome situational pressures, it is not clearly differentiated