(a) Explain the central ideas in the theory of virtue ethics.
(b) Explain the main differences between virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and Kant’s ethics.
(c) Argue for one of these theories as being better than the other two.
Virtue Ethics is the belief that I can be better, that I can choose to do the right thing in any given situation. Whether this choice is one of stopping a burglary or one of offering to help someone with their groceries, choosing virtue means choosing to be the best example of a “good man” that I can. I choose this way of being and believe in it because I know that by choosing to be my best self, doing right whenever possible, that I make life better for not only myself, but for everyone, I interact with and possibly beyond. When I was young my family offered me no morals or values beyond “take care of number one”, I disliked this instinctively. How can taking be good? I knew that when someone took something from me it made me unhappy and when people gave to me (toys, attention, a smile) it made me happy, so I decided that to be good, to become the best version of me that I can, I would act in direct opposition of my parents and do for the sake of doing, I would give for the sake of giving. I was poor so I learned the true value of a smile and that of laughter for people and I decided that I would try to give that much, at the least, to everyone I should meet. To this day, I am unhappy if people I meet do not smile and laugh, or otherwise enjoy the time they spend with (or on) me. My childhood being what it was, I had to look and find my own role models, my own moral exemplars. Considering my parents and the people they associated with most of these beacons of light (and right) came from the TV I watched. When I watched how “Speed Racer” won the day, every day, not by being mean or by taking but by doing the best thing he could in any given situation. Another interesting example was Star Trek (series 1), where I saw how a group of people could all work together, in harmony, towards a single goal. I saw how they treated each other and how they treated others and I saw in these and many other examples how choosing to do the right thing not only benefited those around the action taker but the person themselves. Sometimes the “reward” is only “the good feeling” you have after doing a good thing but some of us will argue that feeling is actually the pinnacle of possible rewards. To try and make it brief; “virtue ethics” is essentially the theory that being a good person brings the reward of becoming a better human, being a good example for others to follow, and the personal knowledge that you do the right thing in any given situation/ do right by the people you interact with (treating strangers the same as friends, caring for those in need where and when you can, etc..). I generally just try to be a mensch and I encourage others to as well, believing that if we all choose to be our best all society benefits.
In contrast, Kant and Utilitarianism seem to focus on the idea of the betterment of society as a whole. Kant says you cannot use a person to achieve any end, but utilitarianism says you can. Kant would not allow the utilitarian to torture a human for information, arguing that what we do matters whereas the utilitarian would have you hold that one human is meaningless against the lives or well-being of the multitudes. I would argue with the “prisoner” is it truly good to harm? Does your god of Love really think death is a means to an end? If you (terrorist) believe that it is right for you to harm “me” because of past wrongs, do you also believe it is right for “us” to retaliate and kill you and yours? The only way to stop fighting is to stop fighting, you cannot “make it even” or “right” by doing more wrong.
I hope I made my argument above for my perspective but here it is again. Be Best. Seriously, ridiculously stated by a ridiculous human. I believe the appropriate saying here is “from the mouths of babes (children, those that unwittingly saw something brilliant). At the end of the day, the most important thing is being able to look oneself in the eye at the end of the day, to be able to see you for who you are, flaws and all, and say, you are a good person. A world full of people that choose right, act with compassion, that treat each and everyone else as a brother or sister, as a son or daughter, even as honored grandfather or grandmother, a world like that is one where everyone eats, where no one is cold at night, a world where education and public interests take priority because they are the foundation of utopia. The future has limitless potential, if every human being stopped looking at each other as competition and judging each other and started working towards the betterment of self… What could we create, a Utopia? A green Earth? A green Earth and Mars? A future where everyone was able to work towards something greater instead of wasting all our energies fighting and arguing about who gets to lead “the people there”, the people should lead ourselves.