PHI 208 Week 4 Discussion (Aristotle’s virtue ethics)

An important aspect of Aristotle’s virtue ethics is the idea that virtues are “habits” that we acquire over time, and like any habit, virtues affect not just what we do, but our desires and emotions as well. Focusing on either Hill’s article or Robinson’s article, how might this be important when discussing environmental ethics or military ethics (focus your discussion on just one of those, but feel free to discuss the other in reply to other people’s posts)? How would a virtue ethicist reply to someone who says that they wish they could do more to express concern for the environment or be more courageous, but are too “weak willed” to do that? Use examples from the assigned media when appropriate.

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What are two virtues that you believe are important to living a flourishing or successful life in either Aristotle’s sense? Explain what goods in human life these virtues enable their possessor to fulfill. Provide examples of characteristic behavior that manifests these virtues, and contrast that with behavior that displays a lack of virtue. Do your examples confirm Aristotle’s view that a virtue is a mean between extremes of excess and defect? If so, explain what those extremes are; if not, explain why. Refer to this week’s readings and media to illustrate and support your claims

Identify an area of life that has an impact on the environment (including non-human animals), and explain how the possession or lack of virtue may make a difference to how one conducts oneself within that practice with respect to that environmental impact. In other words, when it comes to our relation to the environment, what attitudes and behaviors would be characteristic of a virtuous person, and what attitudes and behaviors may be characteristic of a person who lacks the virtues? How can those who do not have the virtues develop those virtues so that they can reliably act and feel in appropriate fashion with respect to this issue? Be sure to be as specific as possible in your analysis, and support your analysis with evidence from the week’s readings and media, including Hill’s article, “Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments.