Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics (also aretaic ethics,^[a]^[1] from Greek ἀρετή [aretḗ]) is a philosophical approach that treats virtue and character as the primary subjects of ethics, in contrast to other ethical systems that put consequences of voluntary acts, principles or rules of conduct, or obedience to divine authority in the primary role.^[2]

Virtue ethics is usually contrasted with two other major approaches in ethics, consequentialism and deontology, which make the goodness of outcomes of an action (consequentialism) and the concept of moral duty (deontology) central. While virtue ethics does not necessarily deny the importance to ethics of goodness of states of affairs or of moral duties, it emphasizes virtue, and sometimes other concepts, like eudaimonia, to an extent that other ethics theories do not.^{[citation needed]}

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^ Carr, David; Steutel, Jan, eds. (1999). Virtue Ethics and Moral Education. Routledge. p. 22. ISBN 9780415170734.
^ Statman, Daniel (1997). "Introduction to Virtue Ethics". Virtue Ethics: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh University Press. p. 7. ISBN 0878402217. [Virtue Ethics] refers to a rather new (or renewed) approach to ethics, according to which the basic judgments in ethics are judgments about character.

[2] Carr, David; Steutel, Jan, eds. (1999). Virtue Ethics and Moral Education. Routledge. p. 22. ISBN 9780415170734.

[3] Statman, Daniel (1997). "Introduction to Virtue Ethics". Virtue Ethics: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh University Press. p. 7. ISBN 0878402217. [Virtue Ethics] refers to a rather new (or renewed) approach to ethics, according to which the basic judgments in ethics are judgments about character.

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