Ethics Finder

Virtue Ethics

A full moral evaluation of a human action or activity involves assessing the character and motives of a) the agent, b) the nature of what they did, and c) the consequences of this - typically those intended, foreseen, or reasonably. The most common and favoured philosophical approach is to attach primacy to the value of either a) or b) or c) and then to explain the value of the others and of the overall action or activity in terms of that. On this basis it is possible to classify ethical theories. Consequentialism is that family of theories that begins with an evaluation of sorts of outcomes or consequences and judges a type of action or activity good (or bad) according to whether it promotes consequences of that sort, and assesses character and motive in terms of whether they are directed towards good (or bad action) so defined. Deontological or duty-based theories take b) to have priority and explain the goodness or badness of a) and c) in terms of this, e.g. suppose lying is a bad kind of action then the consequence of lying in as much as it was due to that is itself morally bad, and likewise the motive to lie is bad because of the intrinsic badness of lying. Virtue ethics in its purest form is the approach which attaches evaluative priority to character and motive, and derives the value of action and outcome by reference to this. So, for example, giving money to the poor is not morally good (though it may be consequentially beneficial) if it is done from the motive of displaying one’s affluence, or seeking praise. A more limited version of virtue ethics is one which allows that other considerations matter in themselves, e.g. type of action, and outcome, but that character is an ineliminable and non-reducible aspect of moral evaluation.

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