Virtue Theory
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
(a) Identify and briefly explain 2 virtues.
Aristotle believed that the virtues were a mid-point between excess and deficiency. For example, the mid-point between Arrogance and Self-Deprecation is Humility, therefore Humility is a virtue.
The ultimate virtue is said to be Eudaimonia. This is the ultimate happiness, perfection or personal fulfilment, though is said to be only achievable for a gifted view.
Being caring is a virtue as it is the mean of over-bearing and cruelty, also being your ideal weight would be a virtue as this is the happy medium between being dangerously skinny and life-threateningly obese.
One thing that is possibly a virtue, but could also be an excess is love. Should it be classed as the midpoint of hate and obsessiveness, or the excess of hate and friendship? This example is one of many that question the virtue theory's ability to be applied to everyday situations, this is because of the overly abstract ideas involved.
(b) Explain how, in any 1 situation, killing might be seen as a virtuous act...