1 00:00:00,480 --> 00:00:10,800 Right. This is the first of my mini podcasts, so we're hoping to be able to do virtue ethics in 15 minutes, which will be interesting. 2 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:16,350 Let's see if I can do it. And this is welcome to everyone who's listening in video and audio. 3 00:00:16,350 --> 00:00:20,250 And, of course, welcome to you, too. So let's get started. 4 00:00:20,250 --> 00:00:29,340 If you've only got 15 minutes, OK, the virtue ethicist argues that what matters morally is not what we do at a time. 5 00:00:29,340 --> 00:00:36,420 Everybody gets things wrong every now and again. You're not immoral because you've done something wrong. 6 00:00:36,420 --> 00:00:44,490 What matters, according to the Virtue ethicist, is what you become over time, not what you do at a time. 7 00:00:44,490 --> 00:00:52,580 And to the virtue ethicists, the acquisition of a good character that is, or that ought to be your moral aim. 8 00:00:52,580 --> 00:00:57,750 And so in particular, he rejects the idea that we should follow rules. 9 00:00:57,750 --> 00:01:00,720 Now, if you listen to the podcast on Day Ontology, 10 00:01:00,720 --> 00:01:06,930 you'll see that the Day Ontologies believes that morality is a matter of following rules in various ways. 11 00:01:06,930 --> 00:01:13,950 But that's not true for the virtues of this emphasis, the virtues of Sicily's that aren't any rules at all in morality, 12 00:01:13,950 --> 00:01:18,840 or at least there aren't any rules that are the sinner qua non of reality. 13 00:01:18,840 --> 00:01:23,820 The thing that you've got to follow in order to act morally and similarly, 14 00:01:23,820 --> 00:01:32,010 the virtue ethicist doesn't think for one minute that you should try and produce certain consequences in order to try to act morally. 15 00:01:32,010 --> 00:01:40,440 The consequentialist, as you'll see if you watch the podcast on consequentialism, does believe this, but not the virtue ethicist. 16 00:01:40,440 --> 00:01:49,050 What the Virtue ethicist believes is that what you are, what your character is, is what matters morally. 17 00:01:49,050 --> 00:01:53,100 And I'm going to give you some considerations that may prompt you to to go along with 18 00:01:53,100 --> 00:01:58,830 that may prompt you to believe that the virtue ethicist is right when he says that. 19 00:01:58,830 --> 00:02:05,910 So imagine this situation. There's a fireman who thinks that he can run again into a burning building. 20 00:02:05,910 --> 00:02:09,900 And if he does so, [INAUDIBLE] be able to save a child. And he thinks this is possible. 21 00:02:09,900 --> 00:02:17,530 And so he springs into action and sadly, he fails to save the child and he injures himself in the attempt. 22 00:02:17,530 --> 00:02:21,520 So his action led to very bad consequences. It didn't help the child. 23 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:31,560 It didn't help himself. But the virtue ethicist would say that the firemen still acted properly because what he did was courageous. 24 00:02:31,560 --> 00:02:41,460 He his action expressed the virtue of courage and therefore it was the right action, although it had poor consequences. 25 00:02:41,460 --> 00:02:51,330 And another situation of poverty. Poverty stricken scientist is offered money by a rival company to share details of his or her work, her work. 26 00:02:51,330 --> 00:02:55,770 I've said here and now the scientist knows that these details are about to be in 27 00:02:55,770 --> 00:03:01,500 the public domain so she could accept without actually doing any harm at all. 28 00:03:01,500 --> 00:03:05,010 But she rejects the offer because she thinks that to do so, 29 00:03:05,010 --> 00:03:11,400 to accept it would be to betray her company and that she thinks would be the wrong thing to do. 30 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:18,060 Now, again, the consequentialist would have to say that it didn't lead to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. 31 00:03:18,060 --> 00:03:28,710 But the virtue ethicist would say that her action, if it expressed the courage of loyalty sorry, the virtue of loyalty, which it might have done, 32 00:03:28,710 --> 00:03:37,740 but didn't necessarily let's say it did, then that would be the right action, because what we should all be aiming for is to become loyal. 33 00:03:37,740 --> 00:03:44,220 And therefore she did the right action. And the final example I'm going to give you is this one. 34 00:03:44,220 --> 00:03:48,810 An unemployed biologist is interviewed for his dream job. 35 00:03:48,810 --> 00:03:58,560 The interview goes really well until he discovers that the company is funded by a Christian organisation and it expects its employees to be Christian. 36 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:09,420 Oh, well, he's not a Christian, but he could easily get away with claiming to be one, but he doesn't want to lie and so he doesn't get the job. 37 00:04:09,420 --> 00:04:15,030 Now, again, it looks as if that the the action that he's performed hasn't had good consequences. 38 00:04:15,030 --> 00:04:19,530 It hasn't led to any benefits for anyone. 39 00:04:19,530 --> 00:04:30,070 But at the same time, virtue ethicists could say it expresses the virtue of being truthful and therefore is the right action to perform. 40 00:04:30,070 --> 00:04:37,480 So this is sorry, so what the Virtue ethicist is saying is that what's your aim should be, 41 00:04:37,480 --> 00:04:42,490 as somebody who's aiming to become a moral agent, is to acquire the virtues. 42 00:04:42,490 --> 00:04:46,360 And in acquiring the virtues, you'll acquire a good character. 43 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:52,810 And having acquired a good character, every action you perform will then be the right action. 44 00:04:52,810 --> 00:04:57,050 You almost can't go wrong, but we'll say something more about that in a minute. 45 00:04:57,050 --> 00:05:01,270 And importantly, we can't be born virtuous. 46 00:05:01,270 --> 00:05:09,280 And virtue is something that must be acquired. And the way we acquire it is to acquire the right habits. 47 00:05:09,280 --> 00:05:13,800 So imagine somebody who's born naturally strong. 48 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:20,920 OK, unless they actually exercise, eat the right things, get enough sleep and so on. 49 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:26,030 Unless they get the right habits, the strength that they're born with, 50 00:05:26,030 --> 00:05:30,100 the natural strength that they're born with won't become the virtue of strength. 51 00:05:30,100 --> 00:05:36,740 Will it be the athlete will just become flabby and the strength that he had as a matter of nature, will just dissipate. 52 00:05:36,740 --> 00:05:43,090 And exactly the same way the virtue ethicist thinks human beings have got to habitually 53 00:05:43,090 --> 00:05:48,610 act in accordance with the virtues in order to avoid becoming morally flabby. 54 00:05:48,610 --> 00:05:53,920 So the first lie you tell is going to be quite difficult. But the second one's a bit easier. 55 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:57,940 The third one's a bit easier, etc. But by the same token, 56 00:05:57,940 --> 00:06:06,040 the first time you resist temptation and do the right thing, it's hard maybe, but then it becomes easier and easier. 57 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:17,270 And in doing this, you're exercising your moral capacity and getting yourself into the right habits and you'll avoid becoming morally flabby. 58 00:06:17,270 --> 00:06:28,790 And if you acquire the right habits, you're going to over time become a person with the disposition to do certain things in certain circumstances. 59 00:06:28,790 --> 00:06:33,020 So, for example, sorry, I was just checking to see if there was a slide that I did once have in. 60 00:06:33,020 --> 00:06:42,230 There was still there, but it wasn't. So, for example, what we're looking for is what Aristotle, for example, called the golden mean. 61 00:06:42,230 --> 00:06:48,890 And the golden mean is the virtue and the virtue lies always in between two vices. 62 00:06:48,890 --> 00:06:51,710 So there's rashness when you think, oh, 63 00:06:51,710 --> 00:07:01,160 I'll get out there and kill the enemy and you just act stupidly because you didn't stop and think the situation is dangerous, etc. That's being rash. 64 00:07:01,160 --> 00:07:09,500 And that's one of the vices over here. And at the other end is the vice of cowardice, where you think, oh, I'm not going to go there. 65 00:07:09,500 --> 00:07:17,300 This is not something I want to touch. In the middle is the golden mean of the virtue of courage. 66 00:07:17,300 --> 00:07:21,830 And so what you've got to aim to do is, is know something about yourself. 67 00:07:21,830 --> 00:07:30,890 So, Mike, I don't know about you, but you might have a tendency towards rashness or you might have a tendency towards cowardice, have a tendency. 68 00:07:30,890 --> 00:07:38,090 You have it's your job to pull yourself away from it towards the golden mean because 69 00:07:38,090 --> 00:07:44,060 it's in achieving the goals and means that you acquire the virtue of courage. 70 00:07:44,060 --> 00:07:52,400 Or another example is, is you can be obsequious or you can be surly and you don't want to be either of those things. 71 00:07:52,400 --> 00:08:05,180 What you want to be is friendly and friendliness. The virtue of friendliness is in between secret obsequiousness and surliness. 72 00:08:05,180 --> 00:08:11,690 So if you acquire the right habits, you'll become a person with a disposition of courage, for example. 73 00:08:11,690 --> 00:08:16,190 And when facing danger, you will act courageously. 74 00:08:16,190 --> 00:08:24,590 If you acquire the right habits, you will over time become the person with the disposition to be friendly, the virtue of friendliness. 75 00:08:24,590 --> 00:08:30,380 And again, when friendship is required, you will be friendly, you won't be obsequious, 76 00:08:30,380 --> 00:08:35,690 you won't be over friendly, nor will you be surly or under friendly. 77 00:08:35,690 --> 00:08:44,900 And once you've become virtuous, once you've acquired the virtues and you'll do three things, you'll know what the right action is. 78 00:08:44,900 --> 00:08:50,690 You'll perform the right action and you'll perform the right action for the right reason. 79 00:08:50,690 --> 00:08:56,870 The right reason being it is the right action. So think about the situation. 80 00:08:56,870 --> 00:09:04,190 Here's your mum or your wife or whoever comes back from the hairdresser says, what do you think? 81 00:09:04,190 --> 00:09:08,240 And you think, yuck, OK, you've got a problem here, haven't you? 82 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:14,300 You can't be both kind and honest. And of course, you want to be both because you're a nice chap. 83 00:09:14,300 --> 00:09:19,550 You've been brought up that way. So you think, oh, what am I going to do here? 84 00:09:19,550 --> 00:09:24,230 Now we can give our arguments for both sides, can't we? 85 00:09:24,230 --> 00:09:27,230 Because you do want to be kind. You do want to be honest. 86 00:09:27,230 --> 00:09:32,390 Now, in this situation, what if it's the first time you've seen your mum smile for six months? 87 00:09:32,390 --> 00:09:36,770 OK, so that situation would probably push you in one direction, wouldn't it? 88 00:09:36,770 --> 00:09:41,180 Or what if her hair is really so bad that if she goes out like that, 89 00:09:41,180 --> 00:09:47,510 she's going to look she's going to become a laughing stock that pushes you perhaps in the other direction. 90 00:09:47,510 --> 00:09:58,370 The virtuous person will look at the whole situation, every aspect of the situation, and know what he should do in that situation. 91 00:09:58,370 --> 00:10:04,490 What's more, [INAUDIBLE] perform the right action so he won't think, well, what I should do here is tell the truth. 92 00:10:04,490 --> 00:10:08,720 But actually, I. I can't I'm a moral coward. 93 00:10:08,720 --> 00:10:20,290 I'm not able to tell my mum that she doesn't look nice, that she ought to go back to the hairdresser and complain or something like that or. 94 00:10:20,290 --> 00:10:28,120 Whatever the other one is, the third thing is you perform the right action because it's the right action. 95 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:35,680 OK, here you could either be honest or you could be kind. Let's say that you're honest, but the reason you're honest. 96 00:10:35,680 --> 00:10:41,960 So the reason you tell your mum that her hair doesn't look nice is because you've given to a moment spight. 97 00:10:41,960 --> 00:10:46,390 OK, you just think you'll pay her back for what she did to me last night. 98 00:10:46,390 --> 00:10:49,870 No, Mum, it doesn't. Look, you really ought to go back it OK? 99 00:10:49,870 --> 00:10:55,390 You can justify that action because you can justify it on the grounds of believing that was the right thing to do. 100 00:10:55,390 --> 00:10:58,720 But actually, maybe it is the right thing to do. 101 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:03,910 Maybe that's what you should do. Maybe that's what the virtue does require of you. 102 00:11:03,910 --> 00:11:09,010 But if you did it for the wrong reason, you are not virtuous. 103 00:11:09,010 --> 00:11:16,330 Do you see the difference? So there's a difference between your act being virtuous and you being virtuous, 104 00:11:16,330 --> 00:11:21,850 and that comes out in when you perform the right action, but for the wrong reason. 105 00:11:21,850 --> 00:11:30,670 So to be virtuous when you perform the right action, it's got to be because it's the right action and for no other reason. 106 00:11:30,670 --> 00:11:40,120 Aristotle was the founder of Virtue Ethics. This this is he's not the person that most virtuous artists these days would rely 107 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:44,440 on because virtue ethics is a modern theory as well as an Aristotelian theory. 108 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:49,360 But he was certainly the founder and he believed that human beings are unique. 109 00:11:49,360 --> 00:11:56,960 I think this is a very important thing about human beings. And I I remember learning this about Aristotle and thinking that's hugely important. 110 00:11:56,960 --> 00:12:05,710 He thinks human beings are unique in that they have a potential. There's a difference between what you are and what you could be. 111 00:12:05,710 --> 00:12:10,840 And Aristotle believes that what makes the difference there is the virtues. 112 00:12:10,840 --> 00:12:15,550 If you acquire the virtues you can get from where you are to where you should be, 113 00:12:15,550 --> 00:12:22,570 you can fulfil your potential, but you're never going to fulfil your potential without acquiring the virtues. 114 00:12:22,570 --> 00:12:29,020 You've got to acquire self-discipline, tenacity, the virtues of wisdom. 115 00:12:29,020 --> 00:12:32,470 You've got to think about where you want to be, what your potential is, and so on. 116 00:12:32,470 --> 00:12:34,990 You've got to make plans by which to get there, 117 00:12:34,990 --> 00:12:45,580 and then you've got to exercise the self-discipline to to put those plans into action and to fulfil your potential is to achieve happiness. 118 00:12:45,580 --> 00:12:51,100 That's what that's the potential of every human being. 119 00:12:51,100 --> 00:12:58,390 And of course, I should just say that no one whose child is killed in an accident is going to be happy, however virtuous he is. 120 00:12:58,390 --> 00:13:03,850 So virtue isn't sufficient for happiness. It's necessary only for happiness. 121 00:13:03,850 --> 00:13:07,930 So you won't be happy without virtue, but with virtue. 122 00:13:07,930 --> 00:13:16,560 You may not be happy either because you haven't got the success or the luck or whatever else is also required. 123 00:13:16,560 --> 00:13:22,090 And very importantly, acquiring the virtues can't be understood as a means to happiness. 124 00:13:22,090 --> 00:13:27,640 OK, so you mustn't think, OK, acquiring virtue is a necessary condition for being happy. 125 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:32,170 I want to be happy. Therefore I'm going to be virtuous. I'm going to be courageous, da da da. 126 00:13:32,170 --> 00:13:38,710 Because I want to be happy. Remember what I said about doing the right thing for the right reason. 127 00:13:38,710 --> 00:13:48,070 If you're courageous, when virtue requires courage, but you're courageous because you want to be happy, 128 00:13:48,070 --> 00:13:54,070 you won't acquire courage, you won't acquire the virtue and you won't acquire happiness. 129 00:13:54,070 --> 00:14:00,580 You've got to see virtue as its own reward in order to acquire the virtues. 130 00:14:00,580 --> 00:14:07,390 And some argue the virtue ethics is circular and gives no guidance at all on what to do. 131 00:14:07,390 --> 00:14:08,860 I mean, you might think, well, hang on a second. 132 00:14:08,860 --> 00:14:17,410 Okay, so if I become a virtuous person, then the type of form of virtuous if I perform virtuous acts, I become a virtuous person. 133 00:14:17,410 --> 00:14:22,090 Well, how useful is that? Not very useful at all. 134 00:14:22,090 --> 00:14:29,650 But the virtue ethicist will insist that there's no such thing as a manual that will tell us how to act properly. 135 00:14:29,650 --> 00:14:34,900 I can't as a as a parent, give my child a set of rules, 136 00:14:34,900 --> 00:14:42,070 a set of instructions by which if they follow these instructions, they will become a moral agent. 137 00:14:42,070 --> 00:14:48,760 All I can do is become a moral agent myself and hope that my child will emulate me, 138 00:14:48,760 --> 00:14:56,540 because the only way we can learn how to act morally is by emulating those who already act morally. 139 00:14:56,540 --> 00:15:06,460 And so the only guidance that virtue Syria offers us when it comes to our own actions is to tell us to seek out virtuous people and emulate them. 140 00:15:06,460 --> 00:15:13,450 And all of us know some people whom we admire, some people we may admire, different people in different circumstances, 141 00:15:13,450 --> 00:15:22,030 but we all know what it is to admire somebody and believe that we would consult these people if facing a moral dilemma. 142 00:15:22,030 --> 00:15:26,950 And that, according to Aristotle, for example, is exactly what we should do. 143 00:15:26,950 --> 00:15:32,290 And in particular, moral knowledge is practical, not theoretical. 144 00:15:32,290 --> 00:15:37,060 So you can't acquire a moral theory that will tell you how to act morally. 145 00:15:37,060 --> 00:15:45,340 All you can do is acquire the knowledge how to act in order to act morally. 146 00:15:45,340 --> 00:15:49,690 And just quickly, I look at three problems for virtue ethics. 147 00:15:49,690 --> 00:15:55,810 Firstly, how do we know who is virtuous? And this is actually more difficult than it might seem. 148 00:15:55,810 --> 00:15:59,980 For example, if not, I don't believe this for a minute. 149 00:15:59,980 --> 00:16:06,220 But if Mike's a liar, he's not going to he will tell the truth most of the time. 150 00:16:06,220 --> 00:16:14,680 Why? Because telling the truth most of the time when when it doesn't bother him, whether he tells the truth or not is the way to get me to trust him. 151 00:16:14,680 --> 00:16:19,180 And of course, if I don't trust him, he can't lie successfully to me. 152 00:16:19,180 --> 00:16:25,060 You can only lie successfully to somebody if they believe you're going to tell the truth. 153 00:16:25,060 --> 00:16:31,600 So a dishonest person is most of the time going to act exactly like an honest person. 154 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:36,610 How do we know when somebody is a virtuous person or not? 155 00:16:36,610 --> 00:16:42,190 Well, I'll leave that with you. The answer has got to be look at them over the time, etc. but I'll leave that with you. 156 00:16:42,190 --> 00:16:47,560 How do we know who's virtuous? Second thing is, are there any virtuous people? 157 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:57,820 We all know that human beings are susceptible to being malevolent at times, to being weak at times, to being wrong at times. 158 00:16:57,820 --> 00:17:03,790 So how can we really say that there is anyone who knows what the right action is, 159 00:17:03,790 --> 00:17:10,090 who always performs the right action and who always performs the right action for the right reason? 160 00:17:10,090 --> 00:17:17,380 And if we can't, is that a problem for virtue ethics? And finally, I've looked at that very quickly already. 161 00:17:17,380 --> 00:17:25,540 This it's an act virtuous because a virtuous person performs it or does the virtuous person perform it because it's the right action? 162 00:17:25,540 --> 00:17:29,830 So that's a quick romp through virtue theory. 163 00:17:29,830 --> 00:17:42,840 And here is if you'd like to go on with philosophy in various ways, here is a way of doing it and I'll leave it there.