An article by Psychology Today outlines for us the basic principles of Virtue Ethics. For reference, Virtue Ethics belongs as a subset to the larger group commonly referred to as normative ethics. Normative ethics deals in distinguishing between what is right and what is wrong. Other ethical schools of thought within normative ethics include deontology and consequentialism.

If you subscribe to virtue ethics, here are some questions you’d probably ask yourself when making decisions:

1. What kind of person do I want to be?
2. What virtues bring me closer to this goal? What vices prevent me from achieving it?
3. Is my behavior consistent with my definition of being a moral person?

The main philosophers that came up with this theory are Aristotle (384-322 BCE) and Alasdair Maclntyre (1929).

In a nutshell, virtue ethics will vary depending on the person you’re speaking to and their personal set of values and beliefs. It consists of aspiring to a set of virtues and avoiding a set of vices, while balancing how much weight one attributes to each individual value that they have chosen to prioritize. Integrity is a primary value across the board for virtue ethicists, no matter who you are.

As usual, let’s talk strengths and weaknesses:

Virtue Ethics
Strengths	– Allows individuals to apply their own personal beliefs to ethical questions – Will generate the most good for the individual deciding (however, perhaps not the most good/least amount of damage overall)
Weaknesses	– There won’t be a universal answer to ethical questions – Answers will vary depending on whose answering the question

I hope you learned something new, and thanks for reading!