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Virtue ethics (also aretaic ethics, [a] [1] from Greek ἀρετή ) is a philosophical approach that treats virtue and character as the primary subjects of ethics, in contrast to other ethical systems that put consequences of voluntary acts, principles or rules of conduct, or obedience to divine authority in the primary role.
This division of virtue as a whole into cardinal virtues is an ongoing project of positive psychology or, in philosophy, virtue ethics, following a tradition originating in Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. It implies a link between virtus and the Greek concept of arete.
As Aristotle says in the Nicomachean Ethics: "at the right times, and on the right occasions, and towards the right persons, and with the right object, and in the right fashion, is the mean course and the best course, and these are characteristics of virtue." [10] For example, generosity is a virtue between the two extremes of miserliness and ...
The highest aims are living well, and eudaimonia – a Greek word often translated as well-being, happiness or "human flourishing". [2] Like many ethicists, Aristotle regards excellent activity as pleasurable for the man of virtue. For example, Aristotle thinks that the man whose appetites are in the correct order takes pleasure in acting ...
List of ethicists including religious or political figures recognized by those outside their tradition as having made major contributions to ideas about ethics, or raised major controversies by taking strong positions on previously unexplored problems.
Aristotle considered ethics to be a practical rather than theoretical study, i.e., one aimed at becoming good and doing good rather than knowing for its own sake. He wrote several treatises on ethics, most notably including the Nicomachean Ethics. [139] Aristotle taught that virtue has to do with the proper function (ergon) of a thing. An eye ...
Moore questions a fundamental pillar of ethics, specifically what the definition of "good" is. He concludes that "good" is indefinable because any attempts to do so commit the naturalistic fallacy . Principia Ethica was influential, with Moore's arguments being considered ground-breaking advances in the field of moral philosophy.
Thus, Machiavelli's use of the term is linked to the concept of virtue ethics. Aristotle had early raised the question "whether we ought to regard the virtue of a good man and that of a sound citizen as the same virtue"; [5] Thomas Aquinas stressed that sometimes "someone is a good citizen who has not the quality...