An Alternative to Moral Principles: Virtue Ethics

Many ethicists criticize the entire notion that actions are the subject of ethics. The central issue (as Ivan Boesky's case demonstrates) is the kind of person an agent ought to be and what the character of humans ought to be. This does not mean that the conclusion of this type of ethics (called virtue ethics) will be much different, however. Rather, the virtues provide a perspective that covers the same ground as the four approaches, just from a different perspective.

A moral virtue is an acquired character that is a valuable part of a morally good person, exhibited in the person's routine behavior. It is admirable because it is an achievement whose development requires effort. The most necessary issue from the perspective of virtue ethics is the question: Which traits of character are moral virtues? What are the traits of personality that make a person a morally good human being? As per Aristotle, moral virtues enable humans to act in accordance with their precise purpose (which he held to be reasoning). Other philosophers as Aquinas have come up with different lists of virtues.

The American philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre says that a virtue is any human disposition that is praised because it enables a person to attain the good at which human "practices" aim. Pincoffs suggests that virtues comprise all those dispositions to act, feel and think in certain ways that we use as the base for choosing between persons or between potential future selves. In general the virtues seem to be dispositions that enable people to deal with human life. However, it also seems that what counts as a moral virtue will lie on one's beliefs and the situations one faces.

Virtue theory says that the endeavor of the moral life is to develop the dispositions that we call virtues and to exercise them as well. The key action guiding implication of virtue theory  can be summed up in the claim that:

"An action is morally right if, in carrying out the action, the agent exercises, exhibits, or develops a morally virtuous character, and it is morally wrong to the extent that by carrying out the action the agent exercises, exhibits, or develops a morally vicious character."

The wrongfulness of an action can be determined by examining the nature the action tends to produce (or the character that tends to produce the action). It also provides a useful criterion for evaluating our social institutions and practices.

An ethic of virtue is not a fifth type of moral principle that should take its place alongside the principles of utilitarianism, justice, rights and caring. Instead, an ethics of virtue fills out and adds to utilitarianism, justice, rights and caring by looking not at the actions people are required to perform but at the character they are required to have.