DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.

Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City

Landline No. (082) 291 1882

Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
GE ETH1

Week 12: VIRTUE ETHICS

Learning Outcomes: At the end of this topic, the students will

be able to:
1. discuss the meaning and basic principles of virtue ethics;
2. distinguish virtuous acts from non-virtuous acts;
3. apply Aristotle’s ethics in understanding the Filipino
character

Concept Digest

INTRODUCTION

Virtue ethics is the ethical framework that is concerned with

understanding the good as a matter of developing the virtuous
(good) character of a person. The two major thinkers of Ancient
Greece, Plato and Aristotle, had discourses concerning virtue.
But Aristotle’s book entitled “Nicomachean Ethics” is the first
comprehensive and programmatic study of virtue ethics.

One sees the ethical theory of Aristotle as engaging the good

in our day-to-day living.

HAPPINESS AND ULTIMATE PURPOSE

Aristotle begins his discussion of ethics by showing that

every act that a person does is directed toward a particular
purpose, or aim, or what the Greeks called telos. Every pursuit
of a person hopes to achieve a good. For example, a person
pursues a chosen career, aiming for a good, that is, to provide
a better future for her family. A person will do anything which
is beneficial to her. Therefore, for Aristotle, the good is
considered to be the telos or purpose for which all acts seek
to achieve.

Aristotle is aware that one does not only to achieve a

particular purpose but also believes that such purpose can be
utilized for a higher goal or activity, which then can be used
to achieve an even higher purpose and so on. In other words,
the different goods that one pursues form a hierarchy of teloi
(plural of telos). For example, you diligently write down notes
while listening to a lecture given by the teacher, you do not
only do this to remember the lessons of the course but also to
pass the examination. To pass the examination then becomes the
product that can help you attain the goal of having a passing
mark. It is important for Aristotle that we know our hierarchy
of goals that our different acts produce in order for us to
distinguish which actions are higher than the other.

Knowing that there is hierarchy of telos, Aristotle then asks

about the highest purpose, which is the ultimate good of human

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882

Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
being. This is Aristotle’s criteria to recognize the highest
good of man:

(1) The highest good of a person must be final. As a final

end, it is no longer utilized for the sake of arriving at a
much higher end.
(2) The ultimate telos of a person must be self-sufficient.
Satisfaction in life is arrived at once this highest good is
attained.

So, what is the highest goal for Aristotle? What goal is both
final and self-sufficient? It is interesting to note that for
Aristotle, these questions can be answered by older individuals
because they have gone through many and challenging experiences
which helped them gain a wealth of knowledge on what the
ultimate purpose of a person is. According to Aristotle, older
individuals would agree that the highest purpose and the
ultimate good of man is happiness, or for Greeks, eudaemonia.

Aristotle says:

Now, such a thing happiness, above all else, is held to be; for this we choose
always for itself and never for the sake of something else, but honor, pleasure,
reason, and every virtue we choose indeed for themselves (for if nothing resulted
from them we should still choose each of them), but we choose them also for the
sake of happiness, judging that by means of them we shall be happy. Happiness, on
the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything
other than itself.

It clear that happens seems to fit to the first criterion

of being the final end of human being. Wealth, power, and
pleasures are means to achieve happiness. For example, if one
accumulates wealth, she would want not just richness but also
power and other desirable things as well such honor and
pleasure. But all these ends are ultimately for the sake of the
final end which is happiness.

Aristotle continues in saying that happiness is also self-

sufficient:

…Let us examine this question, however, on another occasion; the self-sufficient

we now define as that which when isolated makes life desirable and lacking in
nothing; and such we think happiness to bel and further we think it most desirable
of all things, without being counted as one good thing among other — if it were so
countered, it would clearly be made more desirable by the addition of even the
least of goods; for that which is added becomes an excess of goods, and of goods,
the greater is always desirable.

Happiness for Aristotle is the only self-sufficient that

one can aspire. One can imagine a life of being wealthy,

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882

Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
powerful and experiencing pleasurable feelings and yet, such
life is still not satisfying without happiness. The true
measure of well-being for Aristotle is not by means of richness
or fame but by the condition of having attained a happy life.
However, there are various opinion on what specifically is
the nature of the ultimate telos of a person. One is that
happiness is attached with wealth and power while others
associate happiness with feelings and pleasurable. If we argue
about this, the attempt to arrive at the nature of happiness
will be pointless. Instead, Aristotle shows how can we arrive
at the ultimate good by doing our function well.

Question: How can we arrive at our highest good?

According Aristotle, if we perform our function well, then

we are capable of arriving at happiness. But what are our
function? For Aristotle, what defines us, human beings, is our
function or activity of reason. This function makes us
different from the rest of beings. Aristotle says:

…What then can this be? Life seems to be common even to plants, but we are
seeking what is peculiar to man. Let us exclude, therefore, the life of neutron and
growth. Next there would be a life of perception, but it also seems to be common
even to the horse, the ox, and every animal. There remains, then, an active life of
element that has a rational principle; of this, one part has such a principle in the
sense of being obedient to one, the other in the sense of possessing one and
exerting thought.

Therefore, the function of a human being is to act

following the dictates of her reason. Any person for that
matter utilizes her reason but Aristotle further says that a
person cannot only perform her function but she can also pursue
it well. A dancer for example, becomes different from a chef
because of her function is to dance while the chef’s is to
cook. A dancer can dance but what makes her distinct from an
excellent dancer is that the latter dances very well. The same
principle applies to human beings. What distinguishes a good
person from other human beings is her rational activity that is
performed well or excellently. A good individual therefore
stands closer to meeting the conditions of happiness because
her actions are of a higher purpose.

The local saying “Madaling maging tao, mahirap magpakatao”

can be understood in the light of Aristotle’s thoughts on the
function of a good person. Any human beings perform the
activity of reason; thus, being human is achievable. However, a
good human being strives hard in doing an activity in an
excellent way. Therefore, the task of being human becomes more
difficult because doing such activity well takes more effort on
the part of a person.

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 DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882

Accredited by ACSCU-ACI

Gii;’

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