Values and Virtues
All of us have been sent to this world for a purpose; the invariable purpose of life on earth is doing good to each other. What defines the behavior of a person is his character and what shape the character of a person are his values and virtues. The perception of many people is that virtues and values are more or less the same things; however, in this paper we shall see how the two differ and see what the character of a person is in fact. Moreover, we shall also consider an ethical dilemma in clinical practice and see how the values and virtues are used to solve that dilemma.
Values
There are basically six pillars that form the character of the person. These six pillars are the set of ethical values that a person must in order for him to become a man of good character and lead a life that would be remembered in good words. These six pillars include trustworthiness, respect, citizenship, fairness, responsibility and a caring attitude. Although, these terms have a very vague, they cover a lot of other things that must be present in a good character (Ethics Scoreboard, 2007).
Virtues
The blueprint for being a human being is given by virtues. This term comes from the Latin word for man that is "vir." In the ancient times, the person who was considered to be a man was the one who was virtuous. In Latin, the word virtues, from which virtue is derived, signifies strength, power and ability. Therefore,...
Virtue Ethics: The Good and the Bad About Virtue Ethics The philosophy of virtue ethics holds that being a 'good person' or what one might call 'character' is the most important determinant of moral action. Virtue ethics is considered to be one of the major philosophical orientations in the field of normative ethics, along with consequentialism and deontology (Hursthouse 2010). Many consider it to be the oldest form of ethics, harkening
The question here arises, why did we have to return to ancient philosophy of virtue ethics? But interestingly while a great deal of credit is given to Aristotle and Plato, the modern moral philosophers such as Anscombe, Foot, Murdoch, Slote had mentioned in very precise terms the problems they found in Aristotelian ethics. They must have absorbed the writings of ancient philosophers since a lot is said about the moral
Virtue What is the main problem in the field of higher education today, according to Dr. Christina Hoff Sommers? Sommers is concerned about several things that take place on college campuses in America. She is aware that students cheat rather than do their own work, for one thing. She reports on a survey by the Boston Globe that revealed a shocking 75% of high school students have admitted to cheating; the percentage
Values and Ethics in the Workplace Values and Ethics in the Workplace Values and ethics in the workplace can be extremely different among various jobs, careers, companies and organizations, ages, races, and ethnic groups, cultures and parts of the world, office environments, and the individual employees themselves. For example, a secretary in the administrative office of a Catholic church, a poor and illiterate factory worker in India, and a stockbroker who works as
Virtue Ethics This ethical philosophy draws back from the thought and work of the ancient and great Greek philosopher Aristotle (Brown, 2001; SPI, n.d.; Fahey, 2010). The philosophy centers on persons who are moral agents themselves, rather than from their actions or their consequences. A person lives an ethical or the good life if he possesses a right character, also know as virtues. As such he possesses a moral character, according
virtues the proper starting point for ethical theory? The debate about virtue ethics Main issues Critical analysis of virtue ethics criticism Virtues should be the starting point for ethical theory This paper revolves around the question that whether or not virtues are an appropriate starting point for ethical theory. I have presented the main criticism on virtue ethics theory followed by the defense of this theory by renowned virtue ethicists. There are three main
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