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The Ethics of Virtue: Abraham Lincoln and the Piglets

Explore the ethics of virtue and its contrast with the ethics of right action through an examination of Abraham Lincoln's principles. Discover the importance of character traits and the role they play in guiding our actions.

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The Ethics of Virtue: Abraham Lincoln and the Piglets

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  1. The Ethics of Virtue PHIL 2525 Lecture 19

  2. Abraham Lincoln and the piglets....

  3. The Ethics of Right Action vs. the Ethics of Virtue • Action ethicsfocuses on the rightness and wrongness of rules,obligations, and actions. • Virtue ethicsfocuses on character traitsof the individual.

  4. Virtue Ethics...for the ancient Greeks... • Arete...virtue • Character... • Habits...skills

  5. Aristotle • Followed teachings of Socrates and Plato…the concept of "virtue" • “Man is by nature a social and rational animal…”

  6. Aristotle... • Aristotle’s account of virtue is found in The Nichomachean Ethics, which he named in honor of his son Nichomachus.

  7. Aristotle’s Virtue Theory: • The elite are to be guided by their will to excellence • The non-elite by their sense of duty • Illustration from the Nurnberg Chronicle 15thC.

  8. An aside.... Nietzsche • Like Aristotle, Nietzsche saw the concept of duty (slave morality) as necessary and fit for those who could not achieve the higher morality of excellence

  9. What are virtues? One answer… •  Qualities which allow us to control our emotions… • The quality of courage helps us dominate our fear. • The quality of honesty helps us do the right thing even when we are afraid of the consequences. • The quality of charity helps us overcome our selfishness.

  10. Aristotle’s virtue theory: • Moral virtues are habits that regulate the desires of our appetitive nature • Most virtues are at a mean between two vicious habits • My moral actions are freely chosen and are an extension of my virtuous habits

  11. Personification of Virtuein the Library at Ephesus (the virtues of Roman Senators)

  12. Somewhere along the way… • Virtue gave way to rules… • For Christianity, virtue lay in conducting one’s life according to the will of God…

  13. Hypatia 415 CE Alexandria • Hypatia - brilliant mathematician, eloquent Neoplatonist - murdered by a mob of Christians in 415 CE.

  14. Hypatia 415 CE Alexandria • Hypatia - brilliant mathematician, eloquent Neoplatonist - murdered by a mob of Christians in 415 CE.

  15. Christianity stressed… • Original Sin • The frailty of human character • The need for God’s grace

  16. After a thousand years of Christendom...the emphasis changed from doing the right thing for God to doing the right thing for other reasons... • Because it will make living together easier (Hobbes and Locke and social contract theory) • Because it will increase general well-being (Bentham and Mill and utilitarian theory) • Because it’s the rational thing (Kant and deontological theory)

  17. Thomas Hobbes

  18. Hobbes’ Moral Theory • The pre-political state of nature for humans is a condition of mutual conflict that contains no objective moral values • We achieve peace by mutually agreeing to give up our rights to harm each other (social contract) • To assure compliance, we create governments that punish those who break the agreements

  19. David Hume:Catalog of Virtues Natural virtues are those which do not change from one place or time to another… • compassion, generosity, gratitude, friendship, fidelity, charity, good sense, wit and humour, perseverance, patience, courage, parental devotion, good nature, cleanliness, etc.

  20. David Hume:Catalog of Virtues Artificial Virtues are those which are context specific and… • are developed to meet specific needs • are developed by communities to suit themselves • are taught to new or young members • aid in social cohesion • contribute to social order and good government

  21. (Hume on Christian Virtues….) • 'Celibacy, fasting, penance, mortification, self denial, humility, silence, solitude, and the whole train of monkish virtues’ are, neither agreeable nor useful; they ‘stupefy the understanding and harden the heart, obscure the fancy and sour the temper.’

  22. For Hume, all moral virtues fall into these categories… (1) qualities useful to others (2) qualities useful to oneself (3) qualities immediately agreeable to others (4) qualities immediately agreeable to oneself

  23. Hume's theory: • Moral agents perform actions that are motivated by either instinctive or acquired character traits. • Recipients experience pleasure (pain) either immediately from the agent’s action, or from the usefulness (inconvenience) of that action. • Moral spectators sympathetically experience pleasure (pain) when observing the recipient’s pleasure (pain). • The moral spectator's pleasure (pain) constitutes his moral assessment of the agent's character trait, thereby deeming the trait to be a virtue (vice).

  24. Immanuel Kant developed the classical formulation of deontological ethics. right action consists solely in the conformity of an action to a justified (by reason) rule or principle. Categorical imperative…

  25. Wisdom.... • Doing the right thing doesn’t make you a good person… • Being a good person makes you do the right thing…

  26. Legalistic moralityGood conduct = obedience to moral law • Divine Command: God dictates • Utilitarianism: pleasure and pain dictate • Social Contract Theory: society dictates • Kant: reason dictates

  27. Legalistic Ethics Virtue Ethics begins with rules defines good conduct as that which accords with the rules defines good persons as those who conduct themselves accordingly begins with a conception of the good person defines good conduct as the sort of conduct that follows naturally from good character rules are just rough generalizations

  28. Elizabeth Anscombe:Modern Moral Philosophy....1958 • ...proposed that moral philosophers should abandon the obsession with moral rules...with notions such as obligation and duty... • ...recommended a return to Aristotle (and the development of a proper ‘moral psychology’)

  29. Should We Return to the Ethics of Virtue? Anscombe's complaint: • legalistic ethics rest on the incoherent notion of a "law" without a lawgiver • the alternative sources of moral "legislation" are inadequate substitutes

  30. Should We Return to the Ethics of Virtue? • ...rather the living spirit (of good character) than the dead letter (of the law)

  31. Virtue resides in the character, not in the action... • “A truth that’s told with bad intent, beats all the lies you can invent.” William Blake

  32. 12.2 The Virtues (and the vices)... • Traits of character expressed by habitual patterns of behaviour

  33. 12.2 The Virtues (and the vices)... • Virtues (and vices) are traits of character expressed by habitual patterns of behaviour List virtues:

  34. Aristotelian virtues... • courage • temperance • liberality • greatness of soul • good temper or gentleness • being agreeable in company • wittiness • modesty • Virtues (and vices) are traits of character expressed by habitual patterns of behaviour

  35. Virtue resides in the character, not in the action... • You don’t have the virtue of honesty just because you tell the truth. • You don’t have the vice of dishonesty just because you tell a lie…

  36. Aristotle....naturalistic background • The purpose of everything is to flourish... • Vegetative fulfillment • Animalistic fulfillment • Uniquely human fulfillment(to live according to reason)

  37. Moral Virtues as Means between Vices of Excess & Defect Example... • Cowardice - Courage – Foolhardiness What is wanted... • facing dangers at the right place, at the right time, for the right purposes.

  38. Courage... • Courage is a quality so necessary for maintaining virtue that it is always respected, even when it is associated with vice.  -  Dr. Samuel Johnson

  39. Moral Virtues as Means between Vices of Excess & Defect Example... • Cowardice - Courage – Foolhardiness What is wanted... • facing dangers at the right place, at the right time, for the right purposes.

  40. The Golden Mean • shyness – PRIDE – boastfulness • stinginess – GENEROSITY – wastefulness • dishonesty – HONESTY - tactlessness

  41. Virtue is its own reward?

  42. Cleverness and Wisdom • The clever person knows the best means to any possible end. • The wise person knows which ends are worth striving for. (c) Lawrence M. Hinman

  43. 12:3 Advantages of Virtue Ethics... • Provides more complete account of moral motivation • Reinstates room for partiality

  44. 12:4 Virtue and conduct • In combination with... • As alternative to...

  45. 12:4 Virtue and conduct • WWJD ADDAMS N E

  46. 12.5 The Problem of Incompleteness... • Virtue theory leaves you flying by the seat of your pants... • Virtue theory isn’t always helpful in moral conflicts…

  47. Hercules between Virtue and Vice Emmanuel Benner (1836-1896) • A Young Man Between Virtue and Vice Paolo Veronese 1528-1588 • A Philosopher between Virtue and Vice Orazio Samacchini 1532-1577

  48. SLING BLADE • French-Canadian title: Justice of the Heart

  49. Question..... • Is it appropriate to describe a Nazi soldier who fought zealously for Hitler as ‘courageous’?

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