17 Facts About Virtue ethics

1.

Virtue ethics is an approach to ethics that treats the concept of moral virtue as central.

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2.

Virtue ethics is usually contrasted with two other major approaches in normative ethics, consequentialism and deontology, which make the goodness of outcomes of an action and the concept of moral duty (deontology) central.

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3.

Virtue ethics began with Socrates, and was developed further by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics.

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4.

Virtue ethics refers to a collection of normative ethical philosophies that place an emphasis on being rather than doing.

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5.

Today, there is debate among various adherents of virtue ethics concerning what specific virtues are morally praiseworthy.

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6.

Virtue ethics theory was inserted into the study of history by moralistic historians such as Livy, Plutarch, and Tacitus.

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7.

Virtue ethics argues that virtue is a "perceptual capacity" to identify how one ought to act, and that all particular virtues are merely "specialized sensitivities" to a range of reasons for acting.

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8.

Virtue ethics distinguished virtues pertaining to emotion and desire from those relating to the mind.

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9.

Martha Nussbaum has suggested that while virtue ethics is often considered to be anti-Enlightenment, "suspicious of theory and respectful of the wisdom embodied in local practices", it is actually neither fundamentally distinct from, nor does it qualify as a rival approach to deontology and utilitarianism.

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10.

Virtue ethics's argues that philosophers from these two Enlightenment traditions often include theories of virtue.

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11.

Virtue ethics's argues that contemporary virtue ethicists such as Alasdair MacIntyre, Bernard Williams, Philippa Foot, and John McDowell have few points of agreement and that the common core of their work does not represent a break from Kant.

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12.

Those who argue that Kantian deontology conflicts with virtue ethics include Alasdair MacIntyre, Philippa Foot, and Bernard Williams.

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13.

Virtue ethics can be contrasted to deontological ethics and consequentialist ethics by an examination of the other two.

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14.

Deontological Virtue ethics, sometimes referred to as duty Virtue ethics, places the emphasis on adhering to ethical principles or duties.

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15.

Virtue ethics tries to delineate classes of happiness, some being preferable to others, but there is a great deal of difficulty in classifying such concepts.

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16.

Virtue ethics theory emphasises Aristotle's belief in the polis as the acme of political organisation, and the role of the virtues in enabling human beings to flourish in that environment.

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17.

Virtue ethics called for whistleblowing to be expressly supported in the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights.

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