Casey Williams

Virtue ethics is to understand and live with moral character. It doesn’t focus on what exactly is

right or wrong but how a person with their own set of morals would approach a certain situation.

An example would be, there is an ax murderer who killed hundreds of people and is an active

threat. Let's say you walked down the street and noticed the killer about to commit another

murder. Should you yourself kill the killer? Some people think that killing is evil no matter what

the situation so that would not be acceptable to kill. Other people might think that you have to

kill the killer so you would be stopping them from killing many more lives. Virtue ethics wants us

to look at the morals of the person in that situation, not the right and wrong. What are you

wanting from killing the killer? Do you have morals in this situation? I think this form of ethics is

a little strange. It's hard to tell someone's true morals unless you are God or the person

themselves. I guess this is a good way to live life and make choices based on the morals you

have. When thinking about the extremes like vices vs virtues, it can go several ways. You can

be shy, which can be a vice which keeps you from speaking up. You can also be arrogant and

be obnoxious in speaking out too much. You want to stay on the virtue side of being an

outspoken person but also knowing how to be polite. For me, I want to have morals as being

independent, patient, and kind. These things can guide me through my life and let me choose

things for myself that reflect my morals. If everyone follows virtue ethics we can even bring it

into other theories like social contract theory. If everyone making the rules follows virtue ethics

as well, all the people at the table are coming from a place of good. They want their virtues to be

shown in the way we follow laws. Overall, virtue ethics is important. We all need to look into

ourselves and find what we want to give out to the world. Then, we need to let our actions in our

day to day life reflect that. If we all follow virtue ethics and keep our morals in check, we will

have a more accepting and beautiful world to live in.