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(c) Lawrence M. Hinman 1
Lawrence M. HinmanUniversity of San Diego
hinman@acusd.edu
The Ethics of Character:Virtues and Vices
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Introduction
Concern for character has flourished in the West since the time of Plato, whose early dialogues explored such virtues as courage and piety.
Plato
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Two Moral Questions
The Question of Action:– How ought I to act?
The Question of Character– What kind of person ought I to be?
Our concern here is with the question of character
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An Analogy from the Criminal Justice System
• As a country, we place our trust for just decisions in the legal arena in two places:– Laws, which provide the necessary rules– People, who (as judge and jury) apply rules
judiciously
• Similarly, ethics places its trust in:– Theories, which provide rules for conduct– Virtue, which provides the wisdom necessary for
applying rules in particular instances
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Virtue Strength of character
(habit) Involving both feeling
and action Seeks the mean
between excess and deficiency relative to us
Promotes human flourishing
Aristotle
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Virtues and Spheres of ExistenceSphere of Existence Deficiency Mean Excess
Attitude toward self ServilitySelf-deprecation
Proper Self-LoveProper PrideSelf-Respect
ArroganceConceitEgoism
NarcissismVanity
Attitude towardoffenses of others
Ignoring themBeing a Doormat
AngerForgiveness
Understanding
RevengeGrudge
ResentmentAttitude toward
gooddeeds of others
SuspicionEnvy
Ignoring them
GratitudeAdmiration
Overindebtedness
Attitude toward ourown offenses
IndifferenceRemorselessness
Downplaying
Agent RegretRemorse
Making AmendsLearning from them
Self-Forgiveness
Toxic GuiltScrupulosity
Shame
Attitude towardour friends
Indifference Loyalty Obsequiousness
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Spheres of Existence--2
Attitude toward ourown good deeds
BelittlingDisappointment
Sense ofAccomplishment
Humility
Self-righteousness
Attitude toward thesuffering of others
Callousness Compassion Pity“Bleeding Heart”
Attitude toward theachievements of
others
Self-satisfactionComplacencyCompetition
AdmirationEmulation
Envy
Attitude towarddeath
and danger
Cowardice Courage Foolhardiness
Attitude toward ourown desires
Anhedonia TemperanceModeration
LustGluttony
Attitude towardother people
Exploitation Respect Deferentiality
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Two Conceptions of Morality
We can contrast two approaches to the moral life.– The childhood conception of morality:
• Comes from outside (usually parents).• Is negative (“don’t touch that stove burner!”).• Rules and habit formation are central.
– The adult conception of morality.• Comes from within (self-directed).• Is positive (“this is the kind of person I want to be.”).• Virtue-centered,often modeled on ideals.
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The Purpose of Morality
Both of these conceptions of morality are appropriate at different times in life.
Adolescence and early adulthood is the time when some people make the transition from the adolescent conception of morality to the adult conception.
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Rightly-ordered Desires
Aristotle draws an interesting contrast between:– Continent people, who have unruly desires but
manage to control them.– Temperate people, whose desires are naturally
—or through habit, second-nature—directed toward that which is good for them.
– Weakness of will (akrasia) occurs when individuals cannot keep their desires under control.
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Rightly-ordered Desires and the Goals of Moral Education
Moral education may initially seek to control unruly desires through rules, the formation of habits, etc.
Ultimately, moral education aims at forming rightly-ordered desires, that is, teaching people to desire what is genuinely good for them.
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Virtue As the Golden Mean
Strength of character (virtue), Aristotle suggests, involves finding the proper balance between two extremes.– Excess: having too much of something.– Deficiency: having too little of something.
Not mediocrity, but harmony and balance. See examples below.
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Virtue and Habit
For Aristotle, virtue is something that is practiced and thereby learned—it is habit (hexis).
This has clear implications for moral education, for Aristotle obviously thinks that you can teach people to be virtuous.
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Courage The strength of character necessary
to continue in the face of our fears– Deficiency: Cowardice, the inability to do what
is necessary to have those things in life which we need in order to flourish
• Too much fear• Too little confidence
– Excess• Too little fear• Too much confidence• Poor judgment about ends worth achieving
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Nichomachean Ethics, 3.7
What is terrible is not the same for all men; but we say there are things terrible even beyond human strength. These, then, are terrible to every one- at least to every sensible man; but the terrible things that are not beyond human strength differ in magnitude and degree, and so too do the things that inspire confidence. Now the brave man is as dauntless as man may be. Therefore, while he will fear even the things that are not beyond human strength, he will face them as he ought and as the rule directs, for honour's sake; for this is the end of virtue. But it is possible to fear these more, or less, and again to fear things that are not terrible as if they were.
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EN, 2Of the faults that are committed one consists in fearing what one should not, another in fearing as we should not, another in fearing when we should not, and so on; and so too with respect to the things that inspire confidence. The man, then, who faces and who fears the right things and from the right motive, in the right way and from the right time, and who feels confidence under the corresponding conditions, is brave; for the brave man feels and acts according to the merits of the case and in whatever way the rule directs.
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EN, 3Now the end of every activity is conformity to the corresponding state of character. This is true, therefore, of the brave man as well as of others. But courage is noble. Therefore the end also is noble; for each thing is defined by its end. Therefore it is for a noble end that the brave man endures and acts as courage directs. Of those who go to excess he who exceeds in fearlessness has no name (we have said previously that many states of character have no names), but he would be a sort of madman or insensible person if he feared nothing, neither earthquakes nor the waves, as they say the Celts do not; while the man who exceeds in confidence about what really is terrible is rash. The rash man, however, is also thought to be boastful and only a pretender to courage; at all events, as the brave man is with regard to what is terrible, so the rash man wishes to appear; and so he imitates him in situations where he can.
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EN, 4Hence also most of them are a mixture of rashness and cowardice; for, while in these situations they display confidence, they do not hold their ground against what is really terrible. The man who exceeds in fear is a coward; for he fears both what he ought not and as he ought not, and all the similar characterizations attach to him. He is lacking also in confidence; but he is more conspicuous for his excess of fear in painful situations. The coward, then, is a despairing sort of person; for he fears everything.
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EN, 5
The brave man, on the other hand, has the opposite disposition; for confidence is the mark of a hopeful disposition. The coward, the rash man, and the brave man, then, are concerned with the same objects but are differently disposed towards them; for the first two exceed and fall short, while the third holds the middle, which is the right, position; and rash men are precipitate, and wish for dangers beforehand but draw back when they are in them, while brave men are keen in the moment of action, but quiet beforehand.
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EN, 6As we have said, then, courage is a mean with respect to things that inspire confidence or fear, in the circumstances that have been stated; and it chooses or endures things because it is noble to do so, or because it is base not to do so. But to die to escape from poverty or love or anything painful is not the mark of a brave man, but rather of a coward; for it is softness to fly from what is troublesome, and such a man endures death not because it is noble but to fly from evil.
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Courage The strength of character necessary
to continue in the face of our fears.– Deficiency: cowardice, the inability to do what
is necessary to have those things in life which we need in order to flourish.
• Too much fear.• Too little confidence.
– Excess:• Too little fear.• Too much confidence.• Poor judgment about ends worth achieving.
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Courage
Both children and adults need courage. Without courage, we are unable to take the
risks necessary to achieve some of the things we most value in life.– Risk to ask someone out on a date.– Risk to show genuine vulnerability.– Risk to try an academically challenging
program such as pre-med.
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Courage and the Unity of the Virtues
To have any single strength of character in full measure, a person must have the other ones as well.– Courage without good judgment is blind,
risking without knowing what is worth the risk.– Courage without perseverance is short-lived,
etc.– Courage without a clear sense of your own
abilities is foolhardy.
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Courage
Excess Mean DeficiencyUnderestimates actualdanger
Correctly estimatesactual danger
Overestimates actualdanger
Overestimates ownability
Correctly estimates ownability
Underestimates ownability
Undervalues means,what is being placed atrisk
Properly values meansthat are being put at risk
Overvalues the means,what is being placed atrisk
Overvalues goal, whatthe risk is being takenfor
Properly values goal thatis being sought
Undervalues goal, whatthe risk would be takenfor
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Issues of Courage
Fears, dangers, and rightly-ordered fears Seeking out danger: mountain climbing Courage and nonviolence: Gandhi Courage and gender
– Women’s courage is often undervalues– Men’s courage is tied to their gender identity
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Compassion and Pity
Pity looks down on the other.– Consequently, no one wants to be the
object of pity. Compassion sees the suffering of the
other we something that could have happened to us.– Consequently, we welcome the
compassion of others when we are suffering.
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Compassion
Etymology: to feel or suffer with… Both cognitive and emotional Leads to action Excess: the “bleeding heart” Deficiency: moral callousness Contrast with pity
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Compassion as an Emotion
Emotion is often necessary:– to recognize the suffering of others
• emotional attunement
– part of the response to that suffering• others often need to feel that you care
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Compassion and Moral Imagination
Example from Le Chambon“Later in the week they captured an Austrian Jew named Steckler—
he had made the mistake of going to a pharmacy without all of his papers. The police put him—their only prisoner—in one of the big buses. As he sat there, the villagers started gathering around the periphery of the square. The son of Andre Trocmé [the village pastor], Jean-Pierre, walked up to the window of the bus at which Steckler sat and gave him his last piece of rationed (imitation) chocolate. This started the closing of the circle of villagers. They brought their most precious foodstuffs and put them through the window into Steckler’s arms. Soon the quiet little man had a pile of gifts around him about as high as he sat in the seat.
“When the buses left with their one Jew the villagers sang a song of
affection and farewell to him.”
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Cleverness and Wisdom
The clever person knows the best means to any possible end.
The wise person knows which ends are worth striving for.
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Self-LoveIntroduction
Involves feeling, knowing, and acting Characteristics of loving another person:
– Feelings of tenderness, care, appreciation, respect toward that person
– Knowing that person (infatuation usually does not involve knowledge)
– Acting in ways that promote the flourishing of that person
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Self-LovePrincipal Characteristics
Characteristics of self-love– Having feelings of care, appreciation,
and respect for others– Valuing yourself--flows from feelings of
self-love– Knowing yourself--a long, often
arduous, and never completed task– Acting in ways that promote your
genuine flourishing
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Self-Love:Deficiency
Deficiency– Too little feeling: self-loathing– Too little self-valuing: self-deprecating– Too little self-knowledge: unwilling or
unable to look at one’s own motivations, feelings, etc.
– Too little acting: not taking steps to insure one’s own well-being
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Self-Love:Excess
Excesses of self-love take many forms: arrogance, conceit, egoism, vanity, and narcissism are but a few of the ways in which we can err in this direction.
Too much caring: self-centeredness Too much self-valuing: arrogance, conceit Too much self-knowledge: narcissistic Too much acting for self: selfishness
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Friendship
For Aristotle, there is no necessary dichotomy between self-interest and concern for others.
Without friends, in Aristotle’s view, we cannot achieve happiness:– “…without friends no one would choose to
live, though he had all other goods; even rich men and those in possession of office and of dominating power are thought to need friends most of all…” EN, VIII, 1.
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What Is Friendship?“We may describe friendly feeling towards any one as wishing for him what you believe to be good things, not for your own sake but for his, and being inclined, so far as you can, to bring these things about. A friend is one who feels thus and excites these feelings in return: those who think they feel thus towards each other think themselves friends. This being assumed, it follows that your friend is the sort of man who shares your pleasure in what is good and your pain in what is unpleasant, for your sake and for no other reason.”--Rhetoric, Book II, Chap. 4; 1380b36-1381a5
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Types of Friendship
Friendship may have three possible aims:– Utility: ends when the useful purpose is no
longer present.– Pleasure; ends when the pleasure disappears.– A shared commitment to the good: “Perfect
friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in virtue; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good themselves.” EN, VIII, 3.
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Self-love and Altruism“It is true of the good man too that he does many acts for the sake of his friends and his country, and if necessary dies for them; for he will throw away both wealth and honours and in general the goods that are objects of competition, gaining for himself nobility; since he would prefer a short period of intense pleasure to a long one of mild enjoyment, a twelvemonth of noble life to many years of humdrum existence, and one great and noble action to many trivial ones. Now those who die for others doubtless attain this result; it is therefore a great prize that they choose for themselves. They will throw away wealth too on condition that their friends will gain more; for while a man's friend gains wealth he himself achieves nobility; he is therefore assigning the greater good to himself.”
EN, IX, 8
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Self-love and Altruism, 2“The same too is true of honour and office; all these things he will sacrifice to his friend; for this is noble and laudable for himself. Rightly then is he thought to be good, since he chooses nobility before all else. But he may even give up actions to his friend; it may be nobler to become the cause of his friend's acting than to act himself. In all the actions, therefore, that men are praised for, the good man is seen to assign to himself the greater share in what is noble. In this sense, then, as has been said, a man should be a lover of self; but in the sense in which most men are so, he ought not.”
EN, IX, 8
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Forgiveness
This, too, is a virtue indispensable for human flourishing– In any long-term relationship (friendship,
marriage, etc.), each party will do things that must be forgiven by the other.
– Long term relationships are necessary to human flourishing.
– If we cannot forgive, we cannot have continuing long term relationships
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Forgiveness:Excess and Deficiency
Excess: the person who forgives too easily and too quickly– may undervalue self– may underestimate offense
Deficiency: the person who can never forgive– may overestimate his or her own importance– usually lives a life of bitterness and anger
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Cleverness and Wisdom
The clever person knows the best means to any possible end.
The wise person knows which ends are worth striving for.
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Concluding Evaluation
Virtues are those strengths of character that enable us to flourish
The virtuous person has practical wisdom, the ability to know when and how best to apply these various moral perspectives.