What does Virtue ethics focus on?

Answer 1

According to Aristotle and most philosophers, the purpose of ethics is living well. Its central concept is the concept of the good. What is the point of theorizing about the good without becoming good?

In theory, there is a fundamental division about the subject matter of ethics. Some philosophers think it is about character, about what we should be, about becoming a morally good person. Other philosophers think it is about acts, about what we should do, about doing the right thing. (A third option is to combine these two different viewpoints.)

An ethics of moral character is also called a virtue ethics because it focuses on character traits. Positive character traits are virtues; negative character traits are vices. It takes the fundamental question of ethics to be: "What should I be?" In other words, "What kind of person should I be?"

By way of contrast, an ethics of moral action focuses on the rightness or wrongness of acts, behavioral decisions. It takes the fundamental question of ethics to be: "What should I do?" (Most people today seem to assume that ethics is about right and wrong acts and not about good and bad character.)

Therefore, a virtue ethics focuses on the ideal of developing a morally good character. Typically, those who advocate a virtue ethics take morally right actions to be what a morally good person would do in certain circumstances. In this way, they try to understand talk about right and wrong acts in terms of good and bad character. ----