Word Finder and Virtue Ethics
Word Finder is an application that “scans the dictionary” (LoveToKnow, Corp., n.d.) to find useable words out of random letters for games like Scrabble and Words with Friends. It even lets you enter up to two question marks for unknown letters. It is free and as available as the Internet itself. But is it ethical to use it? This paper will discuss the use of Word Finder from the perspective of a branch of normative ethics (Athanassoulis , n.d.) called virtue ethics.
Virtue Ethics
Virtue ethics is at least as old as the 4th century BCE philosopher, Aristotle. It was Aristotle who contemplated that ethics should be more about who we are and less about devising a balance sheet of consequences like consequentialism
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With the exception of my husband, with whom I also play, none of my opponents are able to watch me play. As previously mentioned, Word Finder is a readily available and rapid way of determining, given your available letters, the best word to play in Scrabble. If I used Word Finder, it is likely that I would win every game. No one would know I used it except for me. And, on the surface, no one and nothing would be harmed by my using it, except, perhaps, my opponent’s ego when they lose the game. Thus, the dilemma is, should I use Word Finder to give me the best, highest scoring word possible in my …show more content…
As discussed in the BBC article, Virtue Ethics (2014), virtues change over time. The four more current virtues according to James F. Keenan are justice, fidelity, self-care and prudence (BBC, 2014).
Justice
To be just is to be fair and to “treat all humans equally” (BBC, 2014). If I were to use Word Finder it certainly would not be just as I would have an unfair advantage over my opponent.
Fidelity
Fidelity is akin to loyalty as it “requires that we treat people closer to us with special care” (BBC, 2014). Again, a virtuous person in my shoes would be more careful with the egos and trust of my friends and thus would not use Word Finder.
Self-care
If I am to care for myself, “affectively, mentally, physically, and spiritually” BBC (2014), then I have to contemplate whether being a cheater is good for my mental or spiritual health. Cheating could cause guilt since I am not being fair to those close to me. Full of guilt and concerned about my self-perception (e.g., am I always a cheater? Do I want a reputation of a cheater?) I conclude using Word Finder is not an aspect of self-care.
Virtue ethics is an approach that “deemphasizes rules, consequences and particular acts and places the focus on the kind of person who is acting” (Garrett, 2005). A person’s character is the totality of his character traits. Our character traits can be goo...
The first question that immediately comes to mind is that these virtues seem to be only conceptions. Can these conceptions really be used for everyday practicality? An example of this could,again, go back to courage. For Aristotle courage is the appropriate response to danger. But, is that always the case? It would seem that in some situations of danger, the deficient vice of cowardice might be a more appropriate response. Consider a situation in which you are walking alone in a dark alley at night. Someone confronts you, points a gun in your face, and demands all your money. The correct response to this situation, for Aristotle, is courage, but what type of courage? Is there a mean within the mean of courage for this situation? Perhaps the best thing to do is be cowardly and just give up your money. Would this be acceptable or would this be a cowardly vice in response to danger? According to Aristotle, your wrong if you don 't employ courage to this danger, but in reality, this appears the “right” thing to
There are two basic kinds of ethical judgments. The first have to do with duty and obligation. For example: "Thou shalt not kill, lie, or steal." "You just keep your promises." These judgments often uphold minimal standards of onduct and (partly for that reason) assert or imply a moral ‘ought.’ The second kind of judgment focuses on human excellence and the nature of the good life. These judgments employ as their most general terms "happiness," "excellence," and perhaps "flourishing" (in addition to "the good life"). For example: "Happiness requires activity and not mere passive consumption." "The good life includes pleasure, friendship, intellectual development and physical health." I take these to be the two general types of ethical judgment, and all particular ethical judgments to be examples of these. The main contention of this paper is that we must carefully distinguish these two types of judgments, and not try to understand the one as a special case of the other.
In this essay I will consider the objections to Virtue Ethics (VE) raised by Robert Louden in his article entitled On Some Vices of Virtue Ethics which was published in 1984. It is important to note at the outset of this essay that it was not until 1991 that the v-rules came up in literature. So Louden is assuming throughout his article that the only action guidance that VE can give is “Do what the virtuous agent would do in the circumstances.” I will be addressing Louden’s objections with the benefit of knowing about the v-rules. First of all, let us discuss what VE is. VE is a normative ethical theory that emphasises the virtues or moral character, thus it focuses on the moral agent. It differs from Deontology which emphasises duties or rules, and Utilitarianism which emphasises the consequences of our actions.
The virtue ethics approach is a theory that suggests that people are judged via their character, not specific actions. An individual who has developed good character traits (virtues) is judged as a morally good person. An individual who has developed bad character traits (vices) is judged as a morally bad person. Most of us have a mixture or virtues and vices. There are many pros and cons linked to this approach. The pros include
Virtue is a word that is often associated with having the highest honor and integrity. Everyone has a slightly different definition of virtue. I would like to examine: how has the definition of virtue changed throughout the years? I will analyze Nichomachean Ethics, by Aristotle, and The Prince, by Machiavelli. Aristotle wrote Nichomachean Ethics around 350 BC, while The Prince was written in the early 1500’s. With a nearly 2,000 year time period between these two great works, how has the idea of virtue changed?
Hursthouse, R. (2003, July 18). Virtue Ethics. Stanford University. Retrieved March 6, 2014, from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2013/entries/ethics-virtue
Shafer-Landau, R. (2013) Ethical Theory: An Anthology (Second Edition). West Sussex: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
The concept of virtue ethics was first developed by Aristotle in 'nichomachean ethics '. He believed that the point of ethics is to become good, and virtue ethics highlights this well. It is an agent centred idea of morality and focuses on how a person can develop virtues and what sort of person you should be, rather than how you should act in order to be good. An alternative name for it is aretaic ethics, which comes from the Greek arete meaning any kind of excellence.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit.” These words from Aristotle summarize his virtue ethics theory, one of western philosophy’s three major theories regarding the ultimate standards of moral evaluation. Virtue ethics is sometimes seen as a bridge between the other two prominent moral theories, utilitarianism and deontology. Through readings, research, and in class discussion, I have concluded that virtue ethics is not really a middle ground between utilitarian and deontological moral theories. These three theories represent individual theories entirely. While all three theories do differ, Aristotle's view is much better than those of Kant and Mill. Throughout this paper I will give arguments for why
The other branch of virtues is the agent-based theory which deals with rightfulness of actions.It 's from this theory that most moralists base and benchmark their actions from. The agent-based theory also puts a lot of emphasis on virtues. The virtues are determined in most cases by both any sense in common and intuitions. It’s from this that observers make judgments about admirable traits found in various
Ethical virtue is one of the types of virtue that Aristotle describes in his Book. An example, of an ethical virtue would be justice. The type of virtues that are mentioned to be ethical, could describe the characteristics that someone develops during his/her life. A person can gain ethic virtue by constantly repeating the action. The more the repetition, the quicker it becomes a habit (1103a19-23). It is produced more and more every time the action is being repeated. When Aristotle is talking about ethical virtue he most of
Virtue theory is the best ethical theory because it emphasizes the morality of an individual in which their act is upon pure goodness and presents as a model to motivate others. Aristotle was a classical proponent of virtue theory who illustrates the development habitual acts out of moral goodness. Plato renders a brief list of cardinal virtues consisting of wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. This ethical theory prominently contradicts and links to other theories that personifies the ideal being. However, virtue theorists differ from their own expression of these qualities yet it sets a tone that reflects on the desire to express kindness toward others.
To gain an appreciation for the significance of honesty and trust, consider what our day-to-day life would be if we couldn’t trust anyone. We purchase a bottle of a hundred folic acid tablets from our drugstore. How many of us bother to count the tablets to ensure that we in fact received a hundred? We drive into a gasoline station and the meter reads that we put ten gallons of gasoline into our fuel tank. When was the last time anyone of us bothered to verify whether in fact we received ten gallons instead of nine and a half? We paid seven dollars for a one-pound package of steak. How many of us bother to verify that it was in fa...
Aristotle, argued that he could not judge a person on the basis of one example and wanted to look at the whole over time. Additionally he argued virtue was found between the extremes of each characteristic. Balance between the extremes of emotion was his main concern (Manning and Stroud 59). Virtue ethics requires one to strive for excellence, a process that happens over a long period of time. It includes learning about ethics, struggling with them, and eventually living ethically (Class