What are the 7 virtue ethics? (2023)

What are the 7 virtue ethics?

The seven capital virtues, also known as contrary or remedial virtues, are those opposite the seven deadly sins. They are often enumerated as chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience, and humility.

He brings many insights from a long career studying and applying matters of integrity and ethics, particularly on the millennia-old classical virtues of Trust, Compassion, Courage, Justice, Wisdom, Temperance and Hope, and how they shape character.

These are arête (excellence or virtue), phronesis (practical or moral wisdom) and eudaimonia (usually translated as happiness or flourishing). (See Annas 2011 for a short, clear, and authoritative account of all three.)

seven deadly sins

…can be overcome with the seven corresponding virtues of (1) humility, (2) charity, (3) chastity, (4) gratitude, (5) temperance, (6) patience, and (7) diligence.

Honesty, courage, compassion, generosity, fidelity, integrity, fairness, self-control, and prudence are all examples of virtues.

The Seven Virtues opposed the Seven Sins. In one scheme, the Seven Virtues are based on the three spiritual virtues listed by Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13: Faith, Hope and Charity, followed by the four Cardinal or "Pagan" virtues: Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude, and Justice.

Virtue ethics is a philosophy developed by Aristotle and other ancient Greeks. It is the quest to understand and live a life of moral character. This character-based approach to morality assumes that we acquire virtue through practice.

Virtue ethics is arguably the oldest ethical theory in the world, with origins in Ancient Greece. It defines good actions as ones that display embody virtuous character traits, like courage, loyalty, or wisdom. A virtue itself is a disposition to act, think and feel in certain ways.

Aristotle's criteria for the virtuous person is as follows: You must have knowledge, consciously choose the acts and choose them for their own sake, and the choice must come from a firm character, in accordance to who you are. You must consistently choose to do good acts deliberately for the right reasons.

Virtue ethics allows people to maintain personal and interpersonal connections important for the good life. Virtue ethics does not fall victim to moral schizophrenia, which is one advantage it has over most other moral theories.

Are there more than 7 virtues?

The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed and sloth. The seven heavenly virtues are faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance and prudence.

The "cardinal" virtues are not the same as the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope, and Charity (Love), named in 1 Corinthians 13. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Virtue ethics is based on a positive view of human nature, one that takes into account that humans are strongly predisposed to (a) recognize excellence in others whom they can take as role models and (b) gain fulfillment from a life lived virtuously (eudaimonia).

There are three main strands of development for virtue ethics: Eudaimonism, agent-based theories and the ethics of care.

Virtue Ethics Paper

Virtue ethics is a moral theory that is used to make moral decisions based on what a good or virtuous person would do. The decision to act does not depend on consequences, culture, religion, rules, or society like deontological or teleological ethics.

The seven capital virtues, also known as contrary or remedial virtues, are those opposite the seven deadly sins. They are often enumerated as chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, kindness, patience, and humility.

Courage is the most important of the virtues, because without it, no other virtue can be practiced consistently, said Maya Angelou to members of this year's graduating class. "You can be kind and true and fair and generous and just, and even merciful, occasionally," Angelou said.

Given that I have an undergraduate background in philosophy, I was intrigued and decided to show him a page in one of my books (Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy, Wuellner, 1956) summarizing Aristotle's four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.

Virtue ethics began with Socrates, and was subsequently developed further by Plato, Aristotle, and the Stoics. Virtue ethics refers to a collection of normative ethical philosophies that place an emphasis on being rather than doing.

What is virtue ethics according to St Thomas Aquinas?

Like Aristotle, Aquinas believed that ethical understanding comes through virtue and that virtue is a skill that must be developed. Also like Aristotle, Aquinas believed that we learn what is ethical through our reason, which we can use to uncover God's natural law that is imbued in creation.

For example, generosity is a virtue between the two extremes of miserliness and being profligate. Further examples include: courage between cowardice and foolhardiness, and confidence between self-deprecation and vanity. In Aristotle's sense, virtue is excellence at being human.

There are two main objections to virtue ethics as an ethical system: its vagueness and its relativism. First, virtue ethics is too vague and subjective, and does not produce explicit rules for moral conduct that can tell us how to act in specific circumstances.

The Weaknesses of Virtue Ethics

Virtue ethics may seem to avoid some of the apparent flaws of duty-based ethics and of utilitarianism. A person guided by virtue ethics would not be bound by strict rules or the duty to abide by a state's legal code.

There are two kinds of virtue: intellectual and moral. We learn intellectual virtues by instruction, and we learn moral virtues by habit and constant practice.

Given that I have an undergraduate background in philosophy, I was intrigued and decided to show him a page in one of my books (Dictionary of Scholastic Philosophy, Wuellner, 1956) summarizing Aristotle's four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.

Moral behavior is the mean between two extremes - at one end is excess, at the other deficiency. Find a moderate position between those two extremes, and you will be acting morally.