What are virtue ethics?
Virtue ethics is an approach to moral decision making that focuses on the kinds of actions we do and the sort of character they demonstrate/develop within us. This is different from views such as utilitarianism, which focuses on the consequences and outcomes of our decisions; and also from Kantian deontology, which seeks to determine what sorts of actions should be ‘universalized’ or made rules or duties for all people. Virtue ethics is concerned about action that conforms to the classical virtues expounded by the Greeks and others, such as wisdom, justice, temperance, courage, piety, etc. For example, an action could have very awful consequences for yourself or people around you (it would be bad according to utilitarianism) yet could be an entirely just, courageous or noble act. Virtue ethics would, in general, suggest that we follow this course of action. Similar scenarios could be drawn contrasting virtue ethics with deontology. Virtue ethics is the “old school” approach to morality
Virtue n. Moral excellence and righteousness; goodness. Ethics n. A set of principles of right conduct. Put them together and you get a theory that ethics supersedes morality and that something immoral (such as murder) can be justified ethically. That may well be true, but it doesn’t make it right.
