Virtue Ethics and Ethics of

Care
Report by: Jerwin Andres Anas
Customer Service Advisor
Concentrix Philippines
Virtue Ethics
Virtue Ethics
Virtue ethics are normative ethical theories which
emphasize virtues of mind, character and sense of
honesty. Virtue ethicists discuss the nature and
definition of virtues and other related problems which
focuses on the consequences of action.
Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity,
integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence are
all examples of virtues.
Keywords
• Virtue – a positive characteristic that suggests moral
excellence or goodness.
• Eudaimonia – a contented state of being happy, healthy and
prosperous.
• Agent-centred - ethical approaches that are focused on the
development of the person rather than on the morality of
what they are doing.
• Doctrine of the mean – the desirable middle between two
extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency.
Aristotle in Nichomachean Ethics states
that the Human end or telos is to
achieve Eudaimonia or happiness.
Aristotle
• Happiness requires an active & thoughtful engagement with
life, it is not simply given.
• Hence, the virtues are qualities that are to be cultivated,
expressed through & reinforced by action.
What are the virtues?
• Depends very largely upon circumstances.
• For example, courage would be a desirable & necessary
virtue for a military person.
• For a religious person, humility & obedience might be
equally important.
• Socially, one might consider the virtues of modesty,
politeness & perhaps even good-humour.
What are the virtues?
Such qualities are called virtues because of the effect of
exercising them. Therefore, they may not provide their own
intrinsic justification. It could be argued, therefore, that they
are ‘means to an end’ – namely the flourishing & welfare of
society or of the individual.
Eudaimonia is the result of acting in a
clear minded way, rather than being at
the mercy of our various emotions and
desires.
Eudaimonia is achieved by having
self discipline and control over ones
life
Not by associating happiness with pleasure
seeking.
Indulgence leads to unhappiness
In order to flourish humans need to live the best
life someone can.

Alisdair McIntyre describes it as ‘the

state of being well and doing well in
being well’.
Our virtues must work together like the finely
tuned engine of a car.
Plato, Aristotle and the four Cardinal Virtues
• Temperance (or moderation)
• Justice
• Courage
• Prudence (or wisdom)
Agent Centred
• Virtue ethics is understood as agent centred because it
focuses on the person performing the action rather than the
actions that they perform.
• As we develop virtues we do morally correct actions, which
will in the end benefit society.
Doctrine of the mean
• Aristotle argued there are two vices that
accompany every virtue:
• Vice of deficiency is the distinct lack of virtues.
• Vice of excess is entirely too much of the virtue which
leads to excess.
• At some point between the two vices exists the
virtue, this is referred to as the doctrine of the
mean (golden mean).
The Ethics of Care
The Ethics of Care
• The care view would instead say that we can and should put
the interests of those who are close to us above the interests
of complete strangers.
• We should cultivate our natural capacity to care for others
and ourselves.
Break with tradition
• Ethics of care contrasts with more well-known ethical views,
such as utilitarianism and deontology or Kantian ethics.
• The traditional outlook is what feminist critics call a 'justice
view' of morality.
• A morality of care rests on the understanding of relationships
as a response to another in their terms.
Ethical approach
• The Ethics of Care says: emotion matters.
• Duties, rights and obligations are just one way of thinking
about ethics.
Kohlberg
• Behavioral psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg tested child
subjects using “Heinz’ Dilemma:” should a man steal an
expensive drug to save the life of his wife?
Kohlberg
• There are gender differences in moral
reasoning.
• Kohlberg concluded that females are
incapable of moral reasoning.
• Kohlberg identified six developmental
constructive stages in moral reasoning.
Stages of Moral Reasoning
• Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)
• Level 2 (Conventional)
• Level 3 (Post-Conventional)
Stages of Moral Reasoning
Level 1 (Pre-Conventional)
• 1. Obedience and punishment orientation
• (How can I avoid punishment?)
• 2. Self-interest orientation
• (What's in it for me?)
Stages of Moral Reasoning
Level 2 (Conventional)
• 3. Interpersonal accord and conformity
• (The good boy/good girl attitude)
• 4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation
• (Law and order morality)
Stages of Moral Reasoning
Level 3 (Post-Conventional)
• 5. Social contract orientation
• 6. Universal ethical principles
• (Principled conscience)
Male Superiority
• Kohlberg noted that boys cite relevant principle to solve
Heinz’s dilemma.
• Girls approach moral dilemmas from a developmentally
lower stage.
• Kohlberg concluded that boys reason more effectively than
girls.
Gilligan’s Reinterpretation
• Carol Gilligan notes that Kohlberg’s results indicate male
bias.
• There is no reason to assume the stereotypical male method
of reasoning is superior to the stereotypical female method
of reasoning.
Socialized morality
• The “justice” view of morality is male-centered
• women have traditionally been taught a different kind of
moral outlook that emphasizes solidarity, community, and
caring about one's special relationships
• This "care view" of morality has been ignored or trivialized
because women were traditionally in positions of limited
power and influence
A feminist ethics?
• The ethics of care was developed as part of a feminist
movement.
• Some modern feminists have criticized care-based ethics for
reinforcing traditional stereotypes of a 'good woman’.
• Nevertheless, the ethics of care illustrates that there may be
gender differences in moral reasoning.
• The ethics of care meshes with our belief that different rules
of conduct apply in our personal and public lives.
Summary
• Kohlberg suggested that women simply could not engage in
moral reasoning, because, in his experiments, they were
attentive to what he believed to be irrelevant factors, like
context and relationships, and did not frequently cite
relevant principles. Carol Gilligan reinterpreted these results
in light of gender studies and feminist ethics, and concluded
that women typically do reason in a morally acceptable
manner, simply that they find different kinds of factors to be
relevant.
Summary
• The ethics of care is an ethics promoted by Gilligan and Nel
Noddings, who believe that we behave morally inasmuch as
we care for those with whom we have personal
relationships; they assert that emotive factors are relevant
factors. Making the emotive admissible to moral deliberation
interferes with our desire to be objective, but satisfies our
understanding that we have different moral roles concerning
people close to us. Ethics of care is further criticized by
contemporary feminists on the grounds that it reinforces
stereotypically female roles.
Thank You!