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Hello and welcome to Total Philosophy
In this video we will be looking at Aristotle's Theory of Virtue Ethics
And how it relates to moral philosophy in the modern day
Up until the late 1600s
Aristotle was seen as the leading authority on all things Science and Ethics
But since then we have forgotten much of what Aristotle taught and have developed our own
Scientific and Ethical theories
However thanks to philosophers like Elizabeth Anscombe and Alasdair MacIntyre
Rhe 20th century saw a resurgence of interest in Virtue Ethics
Concepts of moral obligation and moral duty
What is morally right and wrong
And the moral sense of what we ought to do should be jettisoned if this is psychologically
possible
Argued Elizabeth Anscombe in her 1958 article Modern Moral Philosophy
Anscombe was among the first philosophers of the 20th Century
To realise and discuss the limitations of the ethical theories
That have made up so much of moral philosophy since the 1700s
Theories like Immanuel Kant's Deontology
Jeremy Bentham and JS Mill's Utilitarianism
And famed shower cap wearer David Humes Sentimentalism
Were all fatally flawed she claimed
Because they all presumed that the practitioner of ethics
Has the obligation to do good over bad
And could be held responsible even legally for not obeying the ethical consensus
Societies conscience if you will
But not necessarily your own
There are many philosophical arguments against these ethical theories
Such as Hume's Gap and GE Moore's Naturalistic Fallacy
And while Anscombe does give her own specific criticisms
They will each need their own videos to be developed and understood
However one difference we can contrast with modern philosophy when discussing Aristotles
ethics
Is the definition of morality
And his silence on obligation to do those things
He doesn't argue his own view on how best to handle moral dilemmas
It is in fact one of the central tenets of his Virtue Ethics
That nobody agrees on the correct course of action and its not his goal to decide what
it is
Virtue Ethics is about what sort of life would develop a persons character
In such a way as to bring them the greatest happiness
And grant the ability to both want to do the right thing and know what the right thing
is
Aristotle claims that it is obvious that Man desires to be happy
And Virtue is the way in which they will get the Highest Happiness
In other words while there is no obligation to do it per se
The wise person still pursues it
He also claimed that the greatest happiness whatever it turned out to be must contain
these properties
It must be desirable for itself
It must not be desirable on account of other goods
All other goods are desirable for its sake
Aristotle said that if we fulfil these requirements
We would arrive at something called Eudaimonia
Which roughly translates as Overflowing Happiness
In other words we want to be as happy as we can be
We don't want to be as happy as we can be just so that we might possess some lesser
good
Like great friends
Friends come before and not after
And we are quite willing to live a virtuous life in order to achieve the highest happiness
To use a culinary example
Imagine that you were told how to make spaghetti
And that if you did not make and eat the spaghetti you would starve
You have no obligation in order to make and eat the spaghetti
But you would be foolish not to
The reward is just that delicious
Virtue Ethics can be broken into two parts
What Aristotle identifies as the Highest Good or Eudaimonia a human can achieve
And the actual Virtues or AretĂȘ with which we attain it
While AretĂȘ must be practiced
It must be remembered that each Virtue is not in and of itself happiness
Even if pleasurable such as having good friends
Aristotle defines two different groups of virtues
The moral and the intellectual
He believed that if we had only one and not the other
Then we would not be capable of true Virtue
And would never achieve Eudaimonia
In order to come to this conclusion he creates the Function argument
That points out that we actually don't pursue subordinate goods
Like wealth and health
Because they are wellbeing but because they promote wellbeing
However unless we can define what subordinate goods happiness consists of
There is no point in saying that wellbeing is the highest good
To resolve this he points out that the higher levels of rationality we have over animals
Indicates that the good of a human being must have something to do with being human
So using our reason well across our life is what happiness consists of
You may have heard Aristotle's famed line
We become Just by doing Just acts Temperate by doing Temperate acts
What he means by this is that by repeating our behaviours until it becomes habit
We form the basis of our morality
Our disposition is to do the right thing as we perceive it
But how do we know what is moral and what isn't
Aristotle makes the comparison with a good worker who knows how to find the middle ground
between overworking excess
And not working at all deficiency
Likewise we can find a middle point between exuberance and deficiency within our own actions
and character
Who would claim that cowardice is a virtue Noone
Argues Aristotle
And it is clearly negative but acting rashly and running into danger is also foolhardy
and shouldn't be called a virtue
To establish what we mean when we say someone who is virtuous
We must observe the Doctrine of the Golden Mean
The Virtues such as Justice Prudence and Courage
In the previous example always rest somewhere between
Overabundance and Deficiency
Another food example could be imagined of someone who has eaten too much spaghetti
And someone who has eaten too little
The person who eats the goldilocks portion will be the healthiest person
Thank you for watching Total Philosophy
We hope you enjoyed the video
Thanks for all the suggestions and we have been taking them into account
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And we would like to welcome all of our new viewers
What about Virtue Ethics do you find most compelling
What weaknesses does it have
Which philosopher or philosophy would you like to see next
We hope to see you next time