Virtue Ethics

I'm a believer in virtue ethics. The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes that virtue ethics “…emphasize the role of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences. A virtue ethicist is likely to give you this kind of moral advice: ‘Act as a virtuous person would act in your situation.’”

What this means, as a practical matter, is that to increase the odds that you will behave like a good person, you should practice being one.

If you regularly act with honesty, with courage, with kindness, with temperance, with self-restraint, with forethought and forbearance — even when, or especially when, you may find it difficult to do so — those qualities will finally be habitual. They will form your character. They will become you, in more ways than one.

---Dan Hagen---