Virtue ethics

2. Modern virtue theory

Virtue theory is that general area of philosophical inquiry concerned with or related to the virtues. It includes virtue ethics, a theory about how we should act or live. This distinction is a rough one, but it is important to grasp that much of modern virtue theory is by writers not themselves advocating virtue ethics.

Virtue theory has undergone a resurgence since G.E.M. Anscombe’s article ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’ (1958) (see Anscombe, G.E.M. §2). Anscombe believed that it was a mistake to seek a foundation for a morality grounded in legalistic notions such as ‘obligation’ or ‘duty’ in the context of general disbelief in the existence of a divine lawgiver as the source of such obligation (see Duty). She recommended that philosophy of psychology should take the place of moral philosophy, until adequate accounts of such central notions as action and intention were available. Then, she suggested, philosophers might return to moral philosophy through an ethics of virtue.

What is virtue ethics? It is tempting to characterize it as a theory advocating acting virtuously, but this is insufficiently precise. Virtue ethics is usually seen as an alternative to utilitarianism or consequentialism in general (see Consequentialism; Utilitarianism). To put it roughly, utilitarianism says that we should maximize human welfare or utility. A utilitarian, however, may advocate acting virtuously for reasons of utility. Ethical theories are best understood in terms not of what acts they require, but of the reasons offered for acting in whatever way is in fact required.

Which properties of actions, then, according to virtue ethics, constitute our reason for doing them? The properties of kindness, courage and so on. It is worth noting that there is a difference between acting virtuously and doing a virtuous action. One’s doing a virtuous action may be seen as doing the action a virtuous person would do in those circumstances, though one may not oneself be a virtuous person. Virtue ethics, then, concerns itself not only with isolated actions but with the character of the agent. There are reasons for doing certain things (such as kind things), and also for being a certain type of person (a kind person).

This account of virtue ethics enables us to distinguish it from its other main opponent, deontology or Kantianism (see Deontological ethics; Kant, I. §§9–10; Kantian ethics). A Kantian, for example, might claim that my reason for telling the truth is that to do so would be in accordance with the categorical imperative. That is a property of the action of telling the truth quite different from its being honest.