Virtue Ethics

Introduction
Bro. Armin Luistro (Department of Education)
- the implementing guidelines of the children’s Television act of 1997 in order to
regulate television shows and promote more child-friendly programs. Ultimately, for Bro.
Luistro, to regulate television programs would help in the development of children’s values.
- Children at a young age have not yet achieve full personal growth and mental
development. When they see violence on television on a regular basis, they may consider
such violent acts as “normal” and part of the daily occurrences in life.
The study also suggest that children exposed to television violence begin to “imitate what the
observe” and consider violence as “A way to solve problems”

 Mature individuals are aware that it is vital for children to go through the process of
building their personality, or character. It is best to look closely at how good moral
character is developed among individuals.
Virtue Ethics
- is the ethical framework that is concerned with understanding the good as a matter of
developing the virtuous character of a person.
- Focuses on the formation of one character brought about by determining and doing
virtuous an acts.
Plato- the real outside the realm of any human sensory experience but can somehow be
grasped by one’s intellect.
Aristotle- the real is found within our everyday encounter with object in the world
 The truth and the good cannot exist apart from the object and are not independent of
our experience.
Happiness and Ultimate Purpose
Aristotle- discussion of ethics by showing that every act that a person does is directed
toward a particular purpose, aim, or what the Greeks called telos.
- A person’s action manifest a good that she aspires for.
- The good is considered to be the telos or purpose for which all acts seek to achieve.
General Criteria
(In order for one to recognize the highest good of man)
The highest good of a person must be final
- It is no longer utilized for the sake of arriving at a much higher end.
The ultimate telos of a person must be self- sufficient
- Satisfaction in life is arrived at once this highest good is attained.

 According to Aristotle, older individuals would agree that the highest purpose and the
ultimate good of man is happiness, or for the Greek, eudaimonia.
It is clear that conditions for having wealth, power, and pleasures are not chosen for
themselves but for the sake of being a means to achieve happiness.
 The true measure of well-being for Aristotle is not by means of riches or fame but by the
condition of having attained a happy life.
How does a person arrive at her highest good?
- According to Aristotle, if an individual’s action can achieve the highest good, then one must
investigate how she function which enables her to achieve her ultimate purpose.
A person’s action to be considered as truly human mus be an act that is always in accordance
to reason.
Local saying
- “Madaling maging tao, mahirap magpakatao” can be understood in the light of
Aristotle thoughts of the function of a good person.
VIRTUE AS EXCELLENCE
Aristotle says:
- Excellence is an activity of the human soul and therefore, one needs to understand the
very structure of a person soul which must be directed by her rational activity in an excellent
way.
Parts of Human soul
Irrational element
-man consists of the vegetative and appetitive aspects. The vegetative aspect function
as giving nutrition and providing the activity of physical growth in a person.
- This part of man is not in the realm where virtue is exercised because, as the term
suggests, it cannot dictated by reason.
Vegetative aspect of the soul follow the natural processes involve in the physical activities
and growth of a person.
Appetitive aspect work as a desiring faculty of man.
- The act of desiring in itself ia an impulse that naturally runs counter to reason and the
most of the time refuses to go along with reason.
Desire are subject to reason even though these do not arise from the rational part of the soul.
Two aspect of faculty
Moral
-Which concern the act of doing.
Intellectual
-Which concern the act of knowing.
Excellence is attained through teaching.
Two ways by which one can attain intellectual excellence:
1. Philosophic wisdom
- Deals with attaining knowledge about the fundamental principles and truths that
govern the universe.
- It helps one understand in general the meaning of life.
2. Practical Wisdom
- is an excellence in knowing the right conduct in carrying out a particular act.
 In carrying out a morally virtuous life, one needs the intellectual guide of practical
wisdom is steering the self toward the self toward the right choices and actions.
Socrates
- Moral goodness is already within the realm of intellectual excellence. Knowing the
good implies the ability to perform morally virtuous acts.
Aristotle
- Having intellectual excellence does not necessarily mean that one already has the
capacity of doing the good. Knowing the good that needs to be done is different from doing
the good that one needs to accomplish.
Moral virtue
-Someone who habitually determines the good and does the right actions.
- Acquired through habit.
The saying “practice makes perfect” can be applied to this aspect of a person.
Moral Virtue and Mesotes (Theory of Moderation)
-Aristotles, developing a practical wisdom involves learning from experience.
Knowledge is not inherent to a person.
  Attaining practical wisdom, she may initially make mistakes on how reason is applied to
a particular moral choice on action, but through these mistakes, she will be able to
sustain practical wisdom to help steer anther's ability to know morally right choice and
action.

Bro. Armin Luistro

- He say that good values instilled on children are “sometimes removed from the
consciousness of young people” because of television violence.
It is the middle, intermediate, or mesotes for the greek that is aimed at by a morally virtuous
person. Determining the middle becomes the proper tool by which one can arrive at the proper
way of doing things.
 Base on Aristotle, a morally virtuous person is concern with achieving her appropriate
action in a manner that is neither excessive nor deficient. Feeling a passion are neutral
which mean that, in themselves, they are neither morally right nor wrong.
Mesotes- is constantly moving depending on the circumstance where she is in. The mean is
simply an arithmetical proportion.
 The task of being moral involves seriously looking into and understanding a situation
and assessing properly every particular detail relevant to the determination of the mean.
 Targeting the middle entails being immersed in a moral circumstance, understanding
the experience, and eventually, developing the knowledge of identifying the proper way
or the mean to address a particular situation.
Moral virtue
- Firstly condition arrived at by a person who has a character is seen as growth in terms
of the habitual exercise of particular action.
-Secondly, the action done that normally manifest feeling and passion is chosen
because it is the middle.
-Thirdly, the rational faculty that serves as a guide for the proper identification of the
middle is practical wisdom.
Aristotle clarifies further that not all feeling, passions, and actions have a middle point.

Example of particular virtues and the corresponding excesses and deficiencies of these.
Excess Middle Deficiency

Impulsiveness Self-control Indecisiveness

Recklessness Courage Cowardice

Prodigality Liberality Meanness

Being superfluous with regard to manifesting a virtue is no longer an ethical act because one
has gone beyond the middle. Being overly courageous for instance does not make someone
more virtuous because precisely in this condition, she has gone beyond the middle and
therefore has “move out” from the state that is virtuous.