In a recent ethics lesson, I introduced a class to the concept of Virtue Ethics. Not all of my pupils were entirely convinced, something which shouldn’t have surprised me given the zeitgeist in which these young students are steeped.
Virtue Ethics, in brief, is an Aristotelian ethical theory that seeks to find the “golden mean” between the vices of excess and deficiency. This “golden mean” is a virtuous characteristic.
Such virtuous acts, Aristotle says, should then be repeated until they become habit. And then, by becoming habit, they become embodied as character.
