Virtue ethics
Tradition · 4th century BC, Greece, with a major revival in 20th-century philosophy · Philosophy, stage 2: Map the schools
Virtue ethics asks what kind of person you should be, rather than what rule you should follow or what outcome you should produce. Aristotle gave the tradition its classic form in the Nicomachean Ethics, arguing that the good life, eudaimonia, comes from developing virtues, stable character traits like courage, honesty, and generosity, through habituation and practice. Each virtue sits at a mean between an excess and a deficiency, judged relative to the situation and the person. After centuries of being overshadowed by rule-based and consequence-based ethics, virtue ethics was revived in the mid-20th century by philosophers dissatisfied with both alternatives.
What it claims
- The central question of ethics is what kind of person to become, not just what to do.
- Virtues are stable character traits developed through habit and practice, not one-off decisions.
- Each virtue lies at a mean between an excess and a deficiency.
- A good life, eudaimonia, is an activity carried out over a whole life, not a temporary feeling.
Key ideas
People
Sources
- Aristotle's Ethics Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Aristotle Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
