How to Apply Virtue Ethics? A Practical Guide

Question

How can virtue ethics — the oldest ethical theory — be applied to the decisions of daily life? The answer is that virtue ethics is the most practical of the theories, because it is the ethics of the whole person, and its application is the formation of the character.

Quick Answer

Virtue ethics asks not "what should I do?" but "what kind of person should I be?" — and its application has three moves. First, the model: identify the person of good character — the person whose judgment, courage, and compassion you admire — and ask what they would do in your situation. The virtuous person is the standard, and the imitation of the model is the beginning of the practice. Second, the virtues: examine the situation for the virtues at stake — what would wisdom require? courage? justice? temperance? — and choose the action that expresses the virtues rather than the vices. Third, the character: ask not only what the action does but what it makes of you — what does this choice say about the kind of person I am becoming? The daily practice is the cultivation: the habits of the virtues, formed by repetition, until the virtuous action becomes the natural response. The application is not the calculation of the moment but the formation of the life.

Historical Wisdom

The practice of virtue ethics has its model in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle's account of the moral life is the account of the formation: the virtues are the habits — the dispositions of character acquired by practice — and the person becomes just by doing just acts, courageous by doing courageous acts, as the musician becomes a musician by playing. The practical wisdom (phronesis) is the master virtue: the capacity to perceive the situation and to choose the mean between the excess and the deficiency. The modern revival — MacIntyre's After Virtue, Foot's Natural Goodness — recovered the account: the virtues are the characteristics that enable the human flourishing, and the moral life is the life of the practices — the craft, the game, the discipline — in which the virtues are exercised and the goods internal to the practices are achieved.

Philosophical Perspectives

The application of virtue ethics has a precise structure. First, the teleological frame: the virtues are directed at the flourishing — the question of the good life is the question that the virtues answer, and the particular decision is made in the light of the whole life. Second, the perception: the virtuous person perceives the situation differently — the practical wisdom sees what the situation requires, as the expert sees what the novice misses, and the perception is the beginning of the right action. Third, the mean: the virtues are the means between the extremes — the courage between the cowardice and the recklessness, the generosity between the stinginess and the prodigality — and the choice of the mean is the work of the judgment, not the rule.

The application differs from the other theories in its question. The consequentialist asks what the outcomes will be; the deontologist asks what the duty requires; the virtue ethicist asks what the virtuous person would do, and what the action will make of the agent. The three questions are not incompatible — the virtuous person considers the outcomes and respects the duties — but the virtue ethics makes the character the center: the right action is the one that flows from the good character and forms the better character.

Lessons From Thinkers

From Aristotle: the habits — "we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts." From MacIntyre: the practices — the virtues are exercised in the practices, and the goods internal to the practices are achieved by the virtues. From Foot: the nature — the virtues are the characteristics that enable the human flourishing.

Practical Application

The practice has a concrete form. Daily: ask the three questions — what would the person I admire do here? What do the virtues require? What will this choice make of me? The questions orient the decision toward the character. Weekly: the review — where did I act from the virtues, and where from the vices? What habit needs the practice? The review is the examination of the formation. Ongoing: the cultivation — the habits of the virtues are formed by repetition, as Aristotle taught, and the daily practice is the daily formation: the patience practiced in the difficult moment, the honesty in the tempting moment, the courage in the fearful moment. The practice of the virtues is the practice of the life, and the application of virtue ethics is the formation of the person.

Quotes

Aristotle states the formation: "We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts." His account of the mean: "Virtue is a mean between two vices, the one of excess and the other of deficiency." And the modern summary: "The right action is the one the virtuous person would do, and the action that makes the better person — the character is the center, and the application is the formation."

Related Questions

• What Is Virtue Ethics? — the theory in detail.
• Virtue Ethics vs Deontology vs Consequentialism — the three theories compared.
• How to Build Character — the formation in practice.
• What Is Practical Wisdom? — the master virtue.