Show HN: The Virtue of Virtue Ethics | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: The Virtue of Virtue Ethics

4 pointsttonkytonk2 comments

Virtue ethics is the cultivation of the virtues, such as moderation, perseverance and courage. This is in contrast to deontological ethics (basing the ethics of a particular action on certain rules), and Consequentialist ethics (judging the ethics of a particular action by the results {it has been observed that Western society is generally governed by Utilitarian ethics, which is a subset of Consequentialism that judges the ethicality of actions by how much happiness they produce}).

So the problem with the latter two ethics is that they assume the virtue; the rules may not always apply to the situation (e.g. please don't tell the ax murderer which bedroom your children are in because Kant thinks you should) and the value of any particular consequence is usually, if not always, situational.

Virtue ethics takes care of everything by giving the individual their own compass, so to speak. I think some people have the idea that trying to live virtuously is unpleasant or a real drag, but as a recovering drug addict, I can tell you I wouldn't practice it if it was.

I would say that every individual has their own compass, but many don't want it and much effort is spent in justifying their decision to follow someone else's.

Then there are many who don't believe that people should have their own moral compass, because they might think wrong things or whatever.

Quite a lot of overlap between the two groups.

Virtue doesn't extend down the human hierarchy even if you enforce it with violence.

On the coast of Senegal, fishing is the only way to survive. For those that don't fish, there are few jobs that can be had, such as unloading the fish, or sorting them for transportation. The rest join in the economy by taking fish off the boats, or retrieving the fish that have fallen in the water, or stealing them off the boats when they come back to shore. Even if the fisherman push them off the boats, and take back their fish, they will still come back everyday, because there is no other way available to survive. Ethics aren't afforded to a society where people still have to make life or death decisions on a daily basis.

By extension, developed societies are not afforded virtue ethics, when important indices such as well-being, happiness, and the full range of emotional satisfactions, indicative of an intelligent species, are not met. These are maintained by a network of both physical resources, and societal connections.

Maslow, again, comes to mind, detailing how the physical and emotional needs of a person can work to achieve a better human. However, in some modern societies the practical pyramid of needs gets skewed, to only a few people. Will it ever be perfect? I don't think that is ever achievable, but if the goals remain myopic, you may never be able to improve, unless there are interalgic and dedicated people doing so.

Virtue doesn't extend up the human hierarchy even if you enforce it with ethics.

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