Due to some technological errors, our group is a little late posting. Our previous topic was about Aristotle.
During the discussion, we tried to view the difference between morals and virtues because in Passion for Wisdom, it was said "...that there is nothing particularly 'moral' about this list of virtues, and neither Aristotle nor any of the other Greeks had that rather specific sense of 'morality' that makes up so much of the core of ethics today." Our discussion was interesting because we couldn't really wrap our minds around what the difference between morality and virtues were. I'm still perplexed...
Factual Question:
True or False: Aristotle defended slavery.
True (gasp!)
Discussion Question:
What is the difference between morals and virtues? Is there one? If so, why? Why are our modern ethics based on morals?
my thoughts:
Dr. Oliver did mention that virtues during Aristotle's time were considered the middle ground of two extremes For example: to be truthful, you wouldn't tell the truth about every single thing (does this make me look fat? YES! ...just kidding) nor would you lie about everything. You'd walk the middle ground.
The main difference I see between virtues and morals is that morals are sometimes conflicting and harder to follow. However, as described in Passion for Wisdom, to be virtuous you would not have any conflict in doing but rather enjoy being so. Also, there would be no conflict between self-interest and virtue, which maybe morals have. We also discussed the Ten Commandments and whether or not this led to the crossover to morals rather than virtue. Therefore, I am still unsure of what I think because they seem the same to me besides being happy about being virtuous and fearing eternal damnation...
I think that in our day in age, the two are perceived to go hand in hand. Many of the virtues now days are based on morality. In America especially, virtues are centered around morality...due to the fact that it was founded on Christianity, which focuses a lot on morals.
ReplyDeleteI think that the issue of virtuousness vs morality is very subjective. It depends on a lot of different factors whether or not an attribute would be considered virtuous. For instance, one of the virtues Aristotle mentioned was courageousness. Some people could easily argue that to be a virtuous person, you don't have to obtain courage. There are ways to argue against the virtues (though I am not going to go into them...partly because I don't feel the need and partly because I don't entirely know).
Anyway as PW stated, the virtues do not necessarily posses anything moral, though in this day in age a lot of virtues are paired with morality. There is more of a religious and partly conservative undertone in morality. Virtue is in the eye of the beholder...though morality is too...
But yes given the fact that most people (children specifically) are exposed to such things that would be considered ghastly decades ago, I think that the level of morality and virtue have much lower standards, making it easier to link one with the other, though they may be entirely different.