ETHICS | GECC 104

Chapter 4 Virtue Ethics and Christianized Ethics

Virtue Ethics

Virtue Ethics is a moral philosophy that teaches that an action is right if it is an action that a virtuous person would
perform in the same situations. A virtue is a moral characteristic that an individual needs to live well.

Virtue Ethics outs emphasis on developing good habits of character and avoiding bad character traits or vices. Virtue
ethicists, such as Aristotle, hold that people live their lives trying to develop their faculties to the fullest extent. We have
many faculties to develop such as intellectual, physical, social, moral, and so on. Developing one’s moral capacity to the
fullest is pursuing ethical excellence, which is displayed by the virtues (hence “virtue ethics”).

Basically, the virtues are the freely chosen character traits that people praise in others. People praise them because:
(1) they are difficult to develop; (2) they are corrective of natural deficiencies; and (3) they are beneficial both to self and
society.

The ancient Greeks list four “cardinal virtues” namely: wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. The Christian
teaching, on the other hand, recommends faith, hope, charity, and love.

Socrates and Plato’s Moral Philosophy

Since Plato wrote down and essentially adhered to Socrates’ philosophy, it is practical for us to treat their ethical
theories jointly.

Central to Plato’s philosophy is his Theory of Forms–the objectively existing immaterial entities that are the proper
object of knowledge. Everything in the material world is what it is by virtue of its resemblance to, or participation in, this
universal “form” or “idea”.

Circularity and squareness are good examples of what Plato meant by “forms”. A thing in the physical world may be
called a circle or a square insofar as it resembles or participates the form “circularity” or “squareness”.

Aristotle’s Ethics
The “Nicomachean Ethics”

Three general descriptions, which are interrelated, can be used to depict Aristotle’s ethics:

(1) Self-Realizationism. When someone acts in line with his nature or end (telos) and thus realizes his full potential,
he does moral and will be happy.
(2) Eudaimonistic. It focuses on happiness (eudaimonia), or the good for man, and how to obtain it.
(3) Aretaic (virtue-based). Virtue ethics is interested basically in what we should be, that is the character or the
sort of person we should struggle to become.

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics can be thus summarized in this manner:

“All humans seek happiness (well-being), but in different ways. True happiness is tied to the
purpose or end (telos) of human life. The essence of human beings is reason (which separates
and distinguishes them as a specie). Reason employed in achieving happiness leads to moral
virtues and intellectual virtues.”

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ETHICS | GECC 104

Chapter 4 Virtue Ethics and Christianized Ethics

Aristotle’s Telos

Aristotle believes that the essence or essential nature of beings, including humans, lay not on their cause (or
beginning) but at their end (telos). He does not agree with Plato’s belief in a separate realm of “forms”. Aristotle, instead,
argues that rational beings can discover the “essences” of things and that a being’s essence is its potential fulfillment or
“telos”.

Happiness and Virtues

Achieving one’s natural purpose by functioning or living consistently with human nature. Accomplishing it, in turn,
produces happiness; whereas inability to realize it leads to sadness, frustration, and ultimately to poor life.

Aristotle identifies three natures of man: the vegetable or physical; the animal or emotional; and rational or mental.
Ethics, for Aristotle, is the inquiry into the “human good”.

Virtues and the Golden Mean

Virtue refers to an excellence of moral or intellectual character. Aristotle distinguishes two kinds of virtue: virtues of
intellect and moral virtues. The first corresponds to the fully rational part of the soul, the intellect; the second pertains to the
part of the rational soul which can “obey reason”.

Acting in a reasonable manner is done when we choose to and indeed act in a way that neither goes to excess nor
defect. Excess and defect normally indicate a “vice”. Virtue lies neither in the vice of deficiency nor in the vice of excess but
in the middle ground.

Aristotle mentions four basic moral virtues: courage; temperance; justice; and prudence.

Phronesis and Practice

In using the golden mean to become virtuous, we must recognize only that the mean is neither too much nor too little
but also is “relative to us” as moral agents.

The phronesis, the intellectual virtue of practical wisdom, is that kind of moral knowledge which guides us to what is
appropriate in conjunction with moral virtue.

But acting appropriate to the right prescription should be understood in terms of “practice”, training, or cultivation. To
be virtuous, one must perform the actions that habitually bring virtue.

Thomas Aquinas’ Ethics

Also called the Angelic Doctor and the Prince of Scholastics, Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) is an Italian philosopher
and theologian who ranks among the most important thinkers of the medieval time period.

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ETHICS | GECC 104

Chapter 4 Virtue Ethics and Christianized Ethics

In Ethics, Aquinas depends so heavily on Aristotle. Like the Greek philospher, Aquinas believes that all actions are
directed towards ends and that happiness is the final end. Aquinas declares that ultimate happiness is not attainable in this
life, for happiness in the present life remains imperfect. True happiness, then, is to be found only in the souls of the blessed
in heaven or in beatitude with God.

For Aquinas, there are four primary types of law–the eternal, natural, human, and divine.

(1) Eternal Law. Refers to the rational plan of God by which all creation is ordered. As God is the supreme ruler of
everything, the rational pattern or form of the universe that exists in His mind is the law that directs everything in
the universe to its appointed end.
(2) Natural Law. The aspect of the eternal law which is accessible to human reason. Because mankind is part of
the eternal order, there is a portion of the eternal law that relates specifically to human conduct. This is the moral
law, the law or order to which people are subject by their nature ordering them to do good and avoid evil.
(3) Human Law. Refers to the positive laws.This human law includes the civil and criminal laws, though only those
formulated in the light of practical reason and moral laws.
(4) Divine Law. Serves to complement the other types of law. It is a law of revelation, disclosed through sacred test
or Scriptures and the Church. It is focused on how man can be inwardly holy and eventually attain salvation.

Features of Human Actions

Aquinas mentions at least three aspects through which the morality of an act can be determined–in terms of its (1)
species, (2) accidents, and (3) end.

(1) Species. This refers to its kind or the object of the action. Aquinas holds that for an action to be moral, it must
be good or at least not bad in species.
(2) Accidents. Simply refer to the circumstances surrounding the action.
(3) End. Stands for the agent’s intention. An act might be unjust through its intention. A bad intention can spoil a
good act. In this view, converting to a particular religion, say Christianity, merely for material gains is an unjust
act.
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Prepared by:

JASPER KENNETH V. CARREON

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