Re: Virtue Ethics, Deontological Ethics, and Biotechnology

Dave -- Virtue Ethics is a third option besides deontology and
consequentialism (a form of teleological ethics). Virtue Ethics go back to
Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics and are prominent in thought of Thomas
Acquinas. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_ethics One of the
leading modern works on Virtue Ethics is Alisdair MacIntyre's "After
Virtue." I'm finding the notion of virtue ethics attractive because it
seems to give a proper place to both deontology and consequentialism: the
development of virtues or character in people and communities. This seems
consistent with a wholistic view of Biblical ethics, which aren't sets of
rules for their own sake, but are part of God's plan to bring us and all of
creation into shalom -- everything right, good, as it should be.

On 5/13/06, D. F. Siemens, Jr. <dfsiemensjr@juno.com> wrote:
>
> David,
> I've studied ethics. I've taught ethics. I've checked the /Encyclopedia of
> Philosophy/ and a couple dictionaries of philosophy. I've not found any
> reference to virtue ethics. The standard pair among philosophers is
> deontological ethics (duty centered) and teleological or axiological ethics
> (value centered). There are also such irrational variants as emotive ethics,
> which taught that the intensity of feeling is the sole determinant of the
> ethical status of an action or attitude.
>
> There are variations on both broad categories. There are naive
> deontological ethics, such as the claim that our duty is given in the Ten
> Commandments. This is futile, for they do not cover all eventualities. More
> sophisticate members give a rule for determining duty, as Kant did.
> Teleological ethics will specify the value or hierarchy of values that
> determine the morality of an action.
>
> One of the matters I found interesting is that most of the ethical systems
> produce the same evaluation of behavior. There are aberrations, of course.
> The guy now at Princeton who favors infanticide on utilitarian grounds. PETA
> which favors the non-human above the human.
> Dave
>
> On Fri, 12 May 2006 22:39:20 -0400 "David Opderbeck" <dopderbeck@gmail.com>
> writes:
>
> I'm starting work on a paper that will examine a virtue ethics approach
> to biotechnology patent law. I'm getting reasonably well-versed in virtue
> ethics from secular and Catholic social theory perspectives, but I'm also
> trying to dig up evangelical perspectives. It seems there is some tension
> between deontological and virtue approaches within evangelicalism -- or
> maybe that's just my misperception based on early stage research. Anyway,
> I'd be grateful if anyone here is aware of any good sources from an
> evangelical / protestant perspective. (I'm aware of Hauerwas and the
> anabaptist tradition).
>
> Thanks.
>
>
>
Received on Sat May 13 09:09:34 2006