COR JESU COLLEGE, INC.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, ARTS AND SCIENCES

Sacred Heart Avenue, Digos City
Province of Davao del Sur

Gen Ed. 8: Ethics

Module 4: Virtue Ethics

Objectives: At the end of this module, you must be able to:

1. To understand the meaning and source of moral virtue.
2. To examine the ethical approaches to relevant moral issues and problems.

Reference Maboloc, C.R. (2020): Ethics in Contemporary Philippines Society:

SMKC Printshoppe, Davao City

Time frame: 1 week

A married couple cannot produce a baby because the wife is

infertile. They agreed that the husband will donate his sperm to a
ACTIVITY
woman with the legal contract that after the birth of the baby, that
surrogate mother will give them the baby and that, she should
disappear from the scene. After taking care of the child, the surrogate mother developed an
attachment to the child and decided to keep the child and return the money that the couple gave
her for agreeing to be the surrogate mother. The couple went to the court and file a law suit
against the surrogate mother. The decision of the judge is that the surrogate mother should
return the baby to the couple saying that the legal contract between the sperm donor and the
surrogate mother is more binding than the love of the mother to the child.

ANALYSIS
1. Is the judge’s decision moral? Why?
2. Can the surrogate mother have the right of custody to the child? Why?
 ABSTRACTION

Moral virtue, Socrates says, is rooted in moral wisdom. Moral wisdom refers to one’s knowledge
of the moral good. What is the moral good? The opposite of wisdom is ignorance. Moral virtue is
the knowledge of the good. A person of virtue therefore is a man of wisdom. Moral wisdom
implies self-examination. Wisdom, Socrates says, means “knowing thyself.”

The practice of the good is called phronesis. For Aristotle, moral virtue is about the capacity to
be excellent in doing things. Moral wisdom does not come from a single act of kindness or
honesty. It is a habit. It is grounded in the way a person lives. As such, it comes from the practice
of the good. This constitutes what moral character is in terms of its essence and manifestation.

People act, according to the above notion of moral virtue, in pursuit of human happiness. The
moral goal of every human action is happiness. This means that man must never succumb to the
lure of material things. But due to ignorance, people often equate happiness with material
pleasure. True happiness is about how the human being actualizes the character that so defines
his desire to be.

It can be recalled that Plato understood the good life as a life that is governed by a sense of
harmony. Just like Aristotle, goodness and virtue are linked, for their unity produces harmony.
For Plato, the good life is one that can be pictured out in terms of the efficient functioning of
instruments. For instance, a knife is good if it cut wells. In the same manner, a human being is
good if he develops a similar kind of efficiency.

The formation of human character results in the realization of a happy life. For Aristotle,
happiness is the state of living well. Aristotle says: “Every virtue or excellence both brings into
good condition the thing of which it is the excellence and makes the work of that thing be done
well…therefore, if this is true in every case, the virtue of man also will be the state of character
which makes a man good and makes him do his own work well.” (NE 2:6)

Man as Unity of Body and Soul

Aristotle thinks that the human being possesses a distinctive function to fulfill. Aristotle explains
his moral theory through the constitution of the human being. Aristotle says that the human being
is composed of body and soul. For him, the soul is the seat of control while the body is the
instrument. It is the soul that commands the body. The soul, Aristotle believes, consists of
rational and irrational elements. The rational element is the intellect. It is the center that
determines how human beings must act.

The irrational part of the human soul consists of the vegetative and the appetitive elements. The
vegetative element deals with the body’s organic growth, seen as the lowest part of the soul. The
other part is the appetitive element which deals with human emotions and desires. Human beings
have feelings of fear and anxiety or the emotion of joy and resentment. What the person does is
sometimes based on these impulses. The basic idea is for the human being to be able to control
these impulses, and direct the soul to the morally virtuous act.

It is the intellect that regulates human action, and for this reason, it is the highest element in the
soul. In relation to this, Aristotle explains the meaning of moral virtues. He says that “virtue,
being of two kinds, the intellectual and moral: man’s intellectual virtue owes its birth and
growth to teaching while moral virtue comes about as a result of habit.” (NE 2:1) Now, the key
to its explanation comes from the [doctrine of the mean]. The human being must seek the middle
when he acts. Aristotle tells us: “Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice,
lying in the mean, i.e. the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and
by that same principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.” (NE 2:6)

The human self can achieve perfection through phronesis. Our moral virtues, according to
Aristotle, are not mental capacities. Rather, these are character traits. Character refers to the
human being’s ability to choose in such a way that his actions are neither excessive nor
inadequate. Such requires a form of self-mastery. This self-mastery constitutes the meaning of
good character.

Thus, a human person who is courageous possesses the virtue of courage. This means that in the
face of many risks, he knows and acts in a particular way exhibiting such a trait. Moral virtue, in
this regard, helps the individual attain self-perfection, which is the realization of the potentials of
the soul. Virtue defines a person’s character, which is the ultimate goal of the individual.

Aristotle says that ethics is concerned with what constitutes the finality of our action. Thus,
Aristotle writes in Nichomachean Ethics: “All activities aim at some good. Every art and human
inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, aim at some good; and for this reason the good
has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.” (NE 1:1)

The objects of human desire or the things that people pursue are not in themselves the highest
good. Material things are temporary whereas virtue is eternal. Things have a certain sense of
limitation. It is only moral virtue that lasts. Aristotle thinks that “the life of money-making is one
undertaken with compulsion, and wealth is evidently not really the good we are seeking; for it is
merely useful and for the sake of something else.” (NE 1:5)

Goods like money, honor or power are desired not for their own sake, but for the sake of
something else higher. Material wealth brings pleasure; honor begets pride; and political power
brings influence. But all these goods cannot be the ultimate goal of human life. In searching for
this finality, men must act morally to attain the good life.
Aristotle says that “verbally there is general agreement; for the general run of men of superior
refinement say that it is truly human happiness, and identify living well and doing well with
being happy.” (NE 1:4) Happiness, it is said, defines the [good life]. It is a kind of life marked
by excellence, a life that is fully worth living.

Aristotle says that people must seek the good. The good for Aristotle is concerned with the state
of living well. The state living well is eudaimonia which for the Greeks means living the good
life. It is more than the sense of satisfaction, which people often confuse with the real meaning of
happiness. Happiness means that the good life consists of the life that is truly lived. It is that kind
of life that flourishes with noteworthy human activity.

Living well depends on the use of resources which serve as the means to attain the good. The
ability to flourish enables each individual to achieve the highest end of human life. Happiness is
never about the accumulation of material wealth. It goes beyond the ephemeral value of things.
Only human happiness is desirable in itself. Things are only instruments for human happiness.
Aristotle says:

Now, such a thing as happiness, above all else, is held to be; for this we choose
always for itself, and never just for the sake of something else, but honor,
pleasure, reason, and every virtue that we choose indeed for themselves, but we
choose them also for the sake of happiness, judging that by means of them we
shall be happy. Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of
these, nor in general, for anything other than itself. (NE 2:7)

Well-being is expressed in dynamic activity. Living well, in this sense, is connected with doing
or being able to act out what is necessary to realize the [good life]. Aristotle writes, “happiness
seems… to come as a result of virtue and some process of learning and training.” (NE 2:9) An
analogy can be made between flourishing and the gardener. The good gardener possesses all the
skills and tools to be able to flourish in what he does. He cares for his plants and he also
seriously loves his work. This habit makes itself manifest in his character.

It can be said that the gardener who gives his time and skill to improve his work is one who is
truly able to find the fulfillment in what he is doing. Doing well means that one has the ability or
real freedom to attain the good. In a way, living well means that the human person has all the
opportunity to make proper choices in life that enables his unfolding. This unfolding refers to
one’s self-realization. To realize oneself means that one is able to do the things that one finds
valuable because these are things that contribute to the development of the human person.

For more information on the works of the philosophers mentioned in this article, you can go
Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (plato.stanford.edu) and then type the name of the
philosopher in the search engine.

APPLICATION
Answer the following:
1. What is the meaning of moral wisdom?
2. What is the nature of intellectual virtue?
3. Why should people live a virtuous life?
4. How does one achieve human flourishing?
5. What does Aristotle mean by self-perfection?

Student activity:

1. Write an essay on moral wisdom. The essay should be able to express the importance of
moral virtue in your life right now and your social roles and responsibilities especially in
the present society where are plenty of problems and issues.

Criteria:
Evidence of research – 40%
Novelty and rigor of Argument – 40%
Citation/Attribution of sources – 20%