Summary- Sports and Virtues

• How are sports and virtues related?• Is it safe to say that once you exude negative

behaviors, you can never be a virtuous person?

• Are those athletes seen as faking a foul or “flopping” seen as virtuous people?

Virtue Ethics(No ordinary form of ethics)

What is the main question asked by nearly all forms of ethical theories?“Is it right (good)?”

The problem with this sort of ethics is

that the ‘it’ keeps changing.

Virtue EthicsMost ethical theories are concerned with the

‘act’.Deontological ethics: Immanuel Kant - our moral duty

Teleological ethics: Jeremy Bentham - greater good

However Virtue Ethics is concerned with the

character of the moral agent.

A person who a

has developed good traits

is considered

to be a ‘virtuous’

person and thus a

morally good

person.

Equally, if you have developed negative traits or

‘vices’ you are

considered a morally

bad person.

Deontological and teleological ethicists think that right behavior comes before right

character. Virtue theory puts this the other way around – right character comes before

right behavior.

What do you think?

Virtue theory believes it is

only by becoming a

better people that we will do the right thing.

Virtue theory is concerned about

the process of how to become a moral person. Once you have become a

moral person, you will do the right

thing.

Inotherword

s

Look at the five moral virtues below.

As a group try to define the meaning of each word and give an example of each virtue in action.

CourageTemperance

LiberalityMunificenceModesty

Four Cardinal VirtuesCourageJustice

TemperanceWisdom

Eudaimonia derives from the Greek words ‘Eu’ meaning ‘good’ and ‘daimon’ meaning ‘spirit (within)’. This concept of a good inner spirit (or feeling of wellbeing) is translated as ‘happiness’.

Eudaimonia

The ideal contains an element of deserved or justified happiness. The only way to achieve eudaimonia is to truly deserve it and to have worked tirelessly by developing virtuous character traits and avoiding negative ones.

Q. Why might Aristotle say Mother Teresa gained eudaimonia?

For Aristotle, living among other people encouraged the virtues to develop and the vises to disappear. Why would that be?Debate:

• ‘Eudaimonia is unachievable, as it is too idealistic’

• Is achieving eudaimonia the ‘ultimate goal’ or can there be a more altruistic goal that would be more important?

• Explain, with examples, how eudaimonia has intrinsic value.

The Doctrine of the MeanCentral to the ideas of virtue ethics are virtues we should aim for and the vices we should avoid.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

There are two different vices that accompany every virtue. The vice of

deficiency and the vice of excess.

• The vice of deficiency is the distinct lack of virtues, e.g. The deficient vice of modesty is shamelessness.

• The vice of excess is entirely too much of the virtue, e.g. The excessive vice of modesty is shyness.

Either way, for Aristotle, moderation was key.

Virtuous Mean

Vice of Deficienc

y

Vice of Excess

At some point between the two vices exists the virtue; this, Aristotle referred to as the Doctrine of the Mean, or the ‘Golden Mean’. Aristotle believed the virtue provided a

balance of the extremes of the two vices. This golden mean removed the negative aspects of each vice (excess and deficiency) and provided a ‘pure’ virtue between them.

It is important to remember

that the motivation for following the

virtue must be to produce a moral action.

However, you cannot determine the virtue simply by placing it midway between the two vices. It is not as easy as that as different situations call for different virtuous responses (e.g. Sometimes the brave thing to do is to run away).

Virtuous People

Enjoy doing good so face

no moral dilemma.

RestrainedPeople

Mostly do the virtuous thing but have to overcome

moral dilemmas

Incontinent (lack self- restraint)

People

Face moral conflict but

usually choose the

vice

ViciousPeople

Do not attempt to be

virtuous

The Golden MeanThe doctrine of the mean

What type of person are you?

Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean produces three types of person:1. The sophron – naturally lives in the mean without effort.2. The enkrates – tempted but has strong enough will power to live in the mean.3. The akrates – (a person without will or weak-willed person) Cannot live in the

mean by overcoming temptation.

The mean is not the same for everyone. It depends on circumstance.You must apply PHRONESIS to decide on the right course of action.

Phronesis is necessary as we grow up and move away from rules and the demands of authority figures.

We become more autonomous and require a person-centred, virtue-centred morality.

What makes you happy?Think of two major things you do in your life and work out what your ultimate aim is for doing these things.

To do this, try to think of an initial action you do. Ask yourself why you do that, then repeat the question to that answer until you reach the ultimate aim.

E.g. OneGet up in morning?

To go to work

Go to work?

Have a career

Have a career?

Have a good life

ThreeTwo

For Aristotle the means to the aim and the aim itself have different values. There are superior and subordinate aims. E.g. Getting up in the morning is subordinate to earning a living. We do one thing to accomplish a greater thing.

Ultimately, everything is subordinate to the supreme good, which is happiness... Eudaimonia.Q TIME

Q) Are there some actions that do not

have a mean?

Q) At what point do vices

become virtues and

virtues become vices?

Q) Are virtues

a subjective viewpoint of

individual moral acts?

Q) Can a golden mean refer to the action alone or does need a motivation?

Notes:

‘Who am I?’

Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics

What standards am I to measure myself against?

Q

11 virtues (the virtuous mean) 4 cardinal virtues Prudence Justice Temperance Courage

Are these really suitable for the

21st C.?

If you’re not religious can you still be virtuous?

Make a list of 7 virtues you think are suitable for the 21st century.

For each virtue, suggest a vice of deficiency and a vice of excess.

Give examples for each virtue, deficiency and excess. Vice of Deficiency

New Virtuous Mean

Vice of Excess

How will I know whether I’m measuring fairly?

QRead the following four issues and allow yourself no more than3 seconds to make a decision on each.

You find a $5 bill just outside the main entrance. You come across a model answer online whilst researching an essay. You see a file marked ‘Personnel File: A.J. Moloney’ left in the library.You’re asked if you have forgotten or not done your homework.

‘We can know ourselves by considering how we act in spontaneous situations: We reveal ourselves to ourselves when we act in the unplanned world of ordinary life.’

Aristotle

Measurement of ‘self’ is only correct if it matches how we

actually behave in unanticipated situations. A

critical and honest self -knowledge is key, not one

based on wishful thinking.

Banned Phrases:

- It depends.- I’d probably.

- If it was...- Ideally I’d...

‘Who ought I become?’Virtues provide a way of estimating character , and

suggests a direction in which you should go in order to become a better person.

The moral goal should not be

to do the things we

ought to do, but be the person we

ought to be.

Virtue ethics, therefore, is a person-centered approach.

What purpose do these rules serve?

Task: List five rules a parent might give to their child.

Q

Generally parent’s judgements about their children focus on what type of people their children are becoming and how they can help them develop.

Task: Take a piece of paper and on it write down three ethical issues.

Now, turn it over and write on it three things you would like to improve about yourself.

Virtue ethicists see the second side of the paper as the real issues of ethics. The big controversial issues in life can

be addressed only after having promoted a virtuous life.

Q What does this virtue conjure up in your mind?

‘How am I to get there?’‘Prudence’

For both Aristotle and Aquinas, prudence is not simply another word for ‘caution’. Prudence is the virtue of someone who thinks both practically and realistically. Who not only sets realistic ends but works towards achieving them. The prudent person knows how to grow.

Virtue ethics is not a tug-of-war

against good and evil, rather it is

finding the mean between the evils of deficiency and

excess.

Prudence looks for the mean. However, getting the mean is not always easy. If I

needed to combat my fear of heights, where

would be the best place to stand?

The mean is not fixed. It is specific to each individual. And therefore, prudence is all the more important.

A parent might be accused of not

treating each child

exactly the same. But if they did, then only one child would grow adequately.

Instead, parents appreciate the unique

needs of each child and so try to address each

child as unique.

Aquinas said ‘Every human action is a moral action.’ That is, any action I perform is a moral action because it affects me as a moral person. If I use the time when I drive to work to reflect on the day, I become a reflective person. But, If I drive aggressively I arrive at work with the manic personality that got me there. Aquinas saw every human action as an exercise that makes me the person I will become.

When thinking of exercise we think of athletes. The person who exercises by running eventually becomes a runner just as the one

who dances becomes a dancer. Both Aristotle and Aquinas believed if we can develop ourselves physically, we can develop

ourselves morally by intended, habitual activity.

‘Virtuous Exercises’

Virtue ethics is concerned not only

about if a doctor maintains professional ethics, but it is equally concerned with their private life. In other

words, before a doctor is a doctor, they are a person. That is what

virtue ethics is primarily concerned

about.

Virtue ethics is pro-active, in that it doesn’t wait for the moral dilemma to come along and be fixed. It is not the ER of ethics that seeks to react to each situation as it comes rushing

in. It seeks to continually exercise a virtuous

(moral) lifestyle so as to be fine tuned so it may respond, not react, to moral

issues.In short, virtues need to

be practiced to be perfected.