Perrett, R. W., & Patterson, J. (1991). Virtue ethics and Maori ethics. Philosophy East and West, 41(2), 185-202.

First Steps

• The argument of the author is that the Maori Ethics is a representation of the virtue ethics as it is a representation of what one should be and not how one should act. The author alludes to Aristotle's perceptions of ethics and differentiates the concept of virtue ethics from the deontological and consequentialist theories. The concept of the self as the prime moral agent of nature is one of the main argument brought forward by the authors.

• Verbatim: The main thesis of this essay is that traditional New Zealand Maori ethics is a virtue ethics.

• The research question is: what type of ethics is the Maori ethics and how does it relate to the other forms of ethics described today? This question is answered using various arguments that relate to the concept of ethics known today and the way various theorists describe it.

• The article adds to the knowledge on ethics by arguing that both consequentialism and Kantianism have the wrong perception of the fundamentals of ethics. In the views of the author, Maori ethics is a description of a virtue ethics that describes what a person should be based on nature. The Maori people are supposed to emulate their ancestors and it is for this reason that the use the term "tika" to mean the natural.

Second Steps

Critical Positioning

The author quotes some parts of Aristotle's work to show the relationship it has with the Maori form of ethics. They question the stand taken by the consequentialism and Kantianism approaches to ethics by arguing that they got the fundamentals of ethics all wrong. The author looks at the work of other researchers... The development of the essay draws some conclusions from the work done earlier by other scholars such as Best, Johansen, Schwimmer and Lewis. All these researchers have done an analysis of the Maori Ethics before.
Section 1 185-186

The essay addresses the meaning of virtue ethics. The authors explain the meaning from the perspective of various approaches such as the Aristotelian approach to ethics. One thing that emerges is that the Maori ethics can be best understood using the Maori virtues. This means that the virtues are the basic concept in the Maori ethics.

• "A more moderate position is that what theories like Aristotle's show us is that any adequate ethical theory must do justice to the essential part the virtues play (perhaps by including both a theory of right conduct and a theory of virtue." The argument shows that virtues are an integral part of the Maori Ethics as they attempt to connect the self with the arguments of nature.

Section 2: 186-189

The author in this section looks at the reasons that are there to explain the Maori ethics as virtue ethics. The concept of "tika" is well elaborated in relation to nature. The connection of the Maori ethics and the Aristotelian ethics and the connection they have in relation to the inner drive to have a certain character are well outlined.

• "Both Maori ethics and Aristotelian ethics, then, associate the good with the cultivation of a certain excellence of character. Moreover, both identify human excellence or virtue with being "natural," fulfilling one's function." This means that ethics among the Maori is measured in terms of the character that one has. This character is drawn from the inspiration of nature and the ancestors.…