Re: Virtue Ethics, Deontological Ethics, and Biotechnology

When I was teaching biomedical ethics we would make the following illustration:

Ethical actions involve an agent, an action, and consequences of the action.

One way to look at it is that deontological ethics looks at the actions, utilitarianism looks at the consequences, and virtue ethics looks at the agent.

Of course this is an oversimplification, but I dont think that virtue ethics is correctly classified as a renaming of a subdivision of ethics

.----- Original Message -----
  From: D. F. Siemens, Jr.
  To: dopderbeck@gmail.com
  Cc: asa@calvin.edu
  Sent: Saturday, May 13, 2006 3:10 PM
  Subject: Re: Virtue Ethics, Deontological Ethics, and Biotechnology

  Might have known it. What we have is a renaming of a subdivision of teleological ethics with /eudaimonia/ as the value prized. I'm reminded of a statement by a sociological colleague who noted that there were many of his discipline who were actively publishing the same-old-same-old using different terminology in the hope that they would reap an evanescent glory by having someone cite their label. As far as that goes, the anti-ethic I noted, based on the intensity of feeling, is an axiological type with the value elevated to supremacy being emotion, which is purely subjective.

  What is a virtuous life but the constant practice of proper actions, whether these are determined by duty or by value? If my memory serves, it was in such a connection that Aristotle noted that one swallow does not make a summer. So it is necessary to determine the basis of ethical behavior before trying to make it habitual. Aristotle based much on the three convertibles, truth, beauty, good. These are clearly values. The nine versions George cites also fit the traditional classification, although there may be su=ome ambiguity of emphasis in some.
  Dave

  On Sat, 13 May 2006 09:06:09 -0400 "David Opderbeck" <dopderbeck@gmail.com> writes:
    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.
Received on Sat May 13 18:29:02 2006