Deontology Criticisms

1
DeontologyCriticisms

• Too absolutist, inflexible, severe - no
  exceptions to moral rules
• Assigns no moral value to attitudes, feelings, or
  actions motivated by them
• Pessimist about human nature (egoism)

2
DeontologyCriticisms

• Assumes all rational people will agree on moral
  principles
• Ways to cheat with the categorical imperative
• Kants conclusions dont necessarily always
  follow his principles, e.g. suicide, prostitution

3
DeontologyCriticisms

• Doesnt tell you what to do when two duties
  conflict
• The consequences do seem to matter in extreme
  cases

4
Virtue Ethics

• Defines ethics in terms of
• the good person vs. the right act
• the characteristics of an ideal individual
• successful living

5
Virtue Ethics

• Based on human nature
• Goal of life Eudaimonia (success)
• Mistranslated happiness
• means doing well what you were meant, designed to
  do.
• Teleological system (based on purpose, function)

6
Virtue Ethics

• Purpose or Function
• What is a good X?
• What is it supposed to do?
• What is its characteristic activity or function?
• What sets it apart from other things?
• What characteristics allow it to perform its
  function well?

7
Virtue Ethics

• Purpose in nature (teleology)
• The purpose or function of
• The eye to see
• The heart to pump blood
• A fin to swim
• Bacteria to decompose

8
Virtue Ethics

• Plants
• Nutrition
• Growth
• Animals plants plus
• Sensation
• Locomotion
• Humans animals plus
• REASON

9
Virtue Ethics

• Aristotle defines Man as the rational animal
• What he does characteristically, uniquely and
  best is rational activity

10
Virtue Ethics

• Goal of life success, actualizing ones natural
  potential
• Humanity defined by reason
• Success for humanity therefore defined by
  intellectual activity

11
Virtue Ethics

• The ideal life scholar, scientist, intellectual
• This life best actualizes ones potential as a
  rational animal

12
Virtue Ethics

• Aristotle is a realist
• Being an intellectual requires certain things
• Friends to philosophize with
• Not being hideously deformed
• Wealth for food, servants, avoiding
  non-intellectual work (i.e. manual labor)
• Avoiding serious illness or financial ruin (luck)

13
Virtue Ethics

• Do natural things have purposes?
• Can you discover their purposes by looking at
  what they do?
• If human beings have purposes, must they be the
  same?
• Is what humans do characteristically or best
  REASON?

14
Virtue Ethics

• Virtue (arete) A Disposition of character which
  lead to success (eudaimonia)
• Disposition a tendency to act a particular way

15
Virtue Ethics

• Virtue is a mean between the extremes of excess
  and deficiency.
• Virtue is learned through good upbringing and
  practice as an adult
• One learns courage through attempting to act
  courageously
• No distinction between the good life in the
  natural and moral senses

16
Virtue Ethics

• Virtue means doing something at the right time in
  the right amount.
• Example virtues Courage, Temperance, Honesty,
  Pride, Generosity
• Christianity
• Added Faith, Love, less emphasis on reason
• Replaced Pride with Humility, Servitude
• Made Poverty a virtue

17
Virtue Ethics

• Ethics empirically justified
• No egoism/altruism dichotomy
• Whats good for you is good for others
• Aristotle understands the role of unquantifiable
  judgment

18
Virtue Ethics

• Criticisms
• Underlying teleology - purpose in nature?
• Is there a virtue for every moral value?
• Is Aristotle universalizing his bourgeois
  intellectual values or those of Greek culture?