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They indicate such qualities as kindness, fairness, compassion, and so on, and it is these qualities and their corresponding vices that it is the business of ethics to approve or disapprove.Īll this seems simple and uncontroversial there are two ways of looking at an action to evaluate it morally. But, for Aristotle and his present day advocates alike, they matter as expressions of the kind of person you are. These ‘virtue ethicists’ see ethics as being about people – moral agents – rather than merely about actions. Aristotle’s supporters are dissatisfied with the answers ‘modern’ act-centred philosophy offers, and look for a more flexible, person-centred approach that takes more account of the subtle varieties of human motivation. Kant’s and Mill’s approaches are act centred, because they concern themselves with our actions, whilst Aristotle’s is agent centred because it concerns itself with ourselves, and the character dispositions that prompt our actions.īoth approaches have ardent present-day advocates, and so both are alive and well. Instead, it looks at me at the character behind the actions, to see whether I merit approval.Ĭomparing Aristotle with more modern philosophers such as Kant and Mill, we are able to divide ethical theories into two kinds act-centred theories and agent-centred theories. His sort of ethic does not look at my action to see if it fulfils my duty, or produces a certain outcome, such as the greatest good of the greatest number, and therefore merits approval. His ethic is not so much concerned about helping me to see what I ought to do, as about what sort of person I ought to be.Īristotle was concerned with character, and with the things that go to make up good and bad character virtues and vices. The function of ethics is to help me see what I ought to do in a given situation. Heirs as we are to Kant’s idea of duty – there is a right thing that one ought to do, as rational beings who respect other persons – and to Mill’s idea of utility – the right thing to do is that which produces the greatest good for the greatest number – we see ethics as concerned with actions. His idea of ethics was in an important respect different from ours.
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And, not being philosophers, they weren’t even aware of what they had done. The really curious thing is, though, that the first generation of Christians, who included only a few who would call themselves philosophers, found, if not the solution, at least a solution to the puzzle. This has been going on for something like half a century, and it will no doubt keep us perplexed until well into the new millennium, if not beyond. SUBSCRIBE NOW Articles Virtue ethics and the New Testament Which matter most: virtues or duties? Bob Harrison thinks the early Christians had the answer.įor some time, now, moral philosophers have been scratching their heads over an intriguing problem.