Performance Task-Midterm

Make a Reaction and Reflection Paper on the three ethical principles that we discussed.
1.Aristotle Virtue Ethics
2.St. Aquinas Natural Law
3.Kant Deontological Ethics

ANSWERS:
1.Aristotle Virtue Ethics
What it means to live well? To find out what the function of a human being is, Aristotle
looks at what is distinctive about humans. He discovers that the good of the human is to
act in accord with reason well, which can translate into acting in accord with virtue. One
cannot have happiness without virtue, just as it is impossible to be virtuous with the
absence of rational thinking. Virtue ethics is a philosophy developed by Aristotle and
other ancient Greeks. It is the quest to understand and live a life of moral character. He
emphasized that virtue is practical, and that the purpose of ethics is to become good,
not merely to know. He also claims that the right course of action depends upon the
details of a particular situation, rather than being generated merely by applying the law.
Virtue ethics is defining good actions as ones that display embody virtuous character
traits, like courage, loyalty, or wisdom. A virtue itself is a disposition to act, think and feel
in certain ways. It mainly deals with the honesty and morality of a person. It states that
practicing good habits such as honesty, generosity makes a moral and virtuous person.
Central to virtue ethics is the idea that morality is not performing certain right actions but
possessing a certain character. Instead of asking “what actions are right?” virtue ethics
asks, “what kind of persons should we be?’.
Virtue ethics is person rather than action based: it looks at the virtue or moral character
of the person carrying out an action, rather than at ethical duties and rules, or the
consequences of particular actions. It does not only deal with the rightness or
wrongness of individual actions; it provides guidance as to the sort of characteristics
and behaviors a good person will seek to achieve. In that way, virtue ethics is
concerned with the whole of a person's life, rather than particular episodes or actions.
So, virtue ethics help us understand what it means to be virtuous human being and it
gives us a guide for living life without giving specific rules for resolving ethical problems.

2. St. Aquinas Natural Law

In every man there is an innate sense of right and wrong buried within him. This sense
guides people, culture, and even whole countries to act in certain ways. Thomas
Aquinas called this innate sense the natural law. For Aquinas, everything has a function
and the good thing to do are those acts that fulfill that function. He says that the
fundamental principle of the natural law is that good is to be done and evil avoided.
Natural law does not to generate an external set of rules that are written down for us to
consult but rather it generates general rules that any rational agent can come to
recognize simply in virtue of being rational. it is not as if we need to check whether we
should pursue good and avoid evil, as it is part of how we already think about things.
Aquinas describes law as "a certain rule and measure of acts whereby man is induced
to act or is restrained from acting. because the rule and measure of human actions is
reason, law has an essential relation to reason; in the first place to divine reason; in the
second place to human reason, when it acts correctly in accordance with the purpose or
final cause implanted in it by God. Law is directed by its nature to the good, and
especially to the universal or common good.
Natural law as applied to the case of human beings, requires better precisions because
of the fact that we have reasons and free will. It is the nature of humas to act freely by
being inclined towards our proper acts and end. Aquinas believed that God created us
and he wants us to be with him but he also gives us free will. This theory of natural
basically means the theory is set to one set of rules and is concerned with the actions
themselves rather than the consequences. Humans have within them a divine spark
which helps them to discover how to live according to nature. However, Aquinas did not
believe that human perfection or perfect happiness was possible in this life, he saw
happiness as beginning in this world and continuing to the next life. The purpose of
morality is to enable us to arrive at the fulfilment of our natures and the completion of all
our desires.  So natural law relies heavily on reason; this implies that human beings are
capable of reasoning accurately on complex matters and decision making.

3. Kant Deontological Ethics

Immanuel Kant developed a concept called Categorical Imperative. His concept acts as
an ethical principle for behavior which helps in deciding whether an action is right or
wrong, desired or undesired This is a moral principle which denotes that you should “act
only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it
become a universal law”, meaning that you should act a certain way only if you’re willing
to have everyone else act the same way too. Immanuel Kant discovers duties as a
required action in the same degree as the categorical imperative. The actions that are
always met are considered to be perfect duties. Kant ethics is a universal ethical
principle stating that one should always respect the humanity in others, and that one
should only act in accordance with rules that could hold for everyone. For Kant the basis
for a Theory of the Good lies in the intention or the will.  Those acts are morally
praiseworthy that are done out of a sense of duty rather than for the consequences that
are expected, particularly the consequences to self.  The only thing good about the act
is the will, the goodwill.  That will be to do our duty, and what is our duty?  It is our duty
to act in such a manner that we would want everyone else to act in a similar manner in
similar circumstances towards all other people.
To implement the categorical imperative, ask yourself “would I be willing to have
everyone else act the same way?” before acting a certain way, and then base your
actions based on the answer to that. categorical imperative is primarily used when
considering future actions, it can also be used when assessing your past actions. Doing
this can be beneficial. Because every practical law represents a possible action as
good, and therefore as necessary for a subject practically determinable by reason, all
imperatives are formulas of the determination of action, which is necessary in
accordance with the principle of a will which is good in some way.