Thesis
Right action and virtue: toward an applied virtue ethic
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100457
Abstract
What constitutes right action from a virtue ethical perspective? Critics of virtue ethics claim, that as a theory, virtue ethics fails to give a proper account of right action. The account usually given by virtues ethicists and put forth by recent critic Frans Svennson (VR) will be the starting place of my discussion. Svensson goes on to claim that the objections raised against (VR) are damning for virtue ethics as a whole. According to Svensson, any attempt will fail to provide virtue ethics with a proper understanding of what right action is or what it would specifically entail. In concluding, he questions how virtue ethics could revive itself in light of these criticisms, or, if any attempt to do so would result in “another dead end in virtue ethics” (Svensson 2010). Svensson‟s pessimism leads him to conclude that the idea of giving up virtue ethics as a distinctive position in ethical theorizing should be taken seriously. I argue against Svensson, claiming that there can be a formulation of right action (S1) within a virtue ethical framework that is distinctly different from VR and in turn does not fall to the criticisms that are levied against it. I will show that the criticisms levied against VR by both Svensson and Robert Johnson (2003) are not applicable to this new formulation. Further, I will show why Svensson‟s radical conclusion to give up virtue ethics should be rejected. I will apply this new version of right action to abortion in later chapters. Before concluding, I will briefly discuss blame and praise as it pertains to acts considered right and wrong under (S1) and flush out the details of moral responsibility during that discussion.
Metrics
14 File views/ downloads
5 Record Views
Details
- Title
- Right action and virtue
- Creators
- Justin Caouette
- Contributors
- William P. Kabasenche (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Politics, Philosophy and Public Affairs, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525085301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis