On pages 66-67, there’s a brief discussion of moral development that fits very w

On pages 66-67, there’s a brief discussion of moral development that fits very well with virtue ethics’ process of emulating moral exemplars. Melody’s speech here ties literacy to the development of empathy through moral emulation of others—through reading stories about others, we can get a sense of what it’s like to be someone else, and literacy gives us, in this way, a powerful tool for developing moral habits by thinking about actions and choices through characters that exhibit virtue. Melody, of course, herself represents a moral exemplar for Alia, who, through the grok, is able to experience difficult and virtuous choices even more directly than in reading.
How does Alia use her experience of Melody’s life as a moral exemplar to help guide her own choices and form her own character? What virtuous habits does she develop through the story’s progress, and how does she use Melody’s story to develop those habits? How could you use your experiences with these characters, in having read this story, to develop and/or reinforce virtuous habits of your own? In both of these discussions, identify specific virtues, like courage, kindness, temperance, graciousness, generosity, commitment, and wisdom.
Virtue Ethics
There are several traditions of virtue ethics, but the most influential are the Aristotelian and the Buddhist virtue ethics traditions.
Virtue ethics looks at morality as an aspect of personal character rather than considering effects (like consequentialism) or intention (like deontology) or social systems (like contractarianism) or relationships and roles (like ethics of care and Confucianism) or shared humanity (like ubuntu). Morality, for virtue ethics, means doing the right thing in the right situation for the right reasons—being virtuous isn’t about intentions or actions or relationships alone, but is about responding in the right kind of way, a virtuous way, to a situation. To be courageous, for example, may include not only facing the fear of defeat when rushing into battle, but also facing the fear of shame when surrendering to avoid pointless casualties. Aristotle talks about virtue as a mean between extremes—for example, courage is the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness, and temperance is the mean between overindulgence and abstemiousness. A person of virtuous character responds in the right way to situations, through moderation and self-control, even when the right way involves “breaking the rules” (“skillful means” [upāya kaushalya] in the Buddhist tradition).
Character, virtuous or vicious, is not something innate or unchanging, but is constituted by habit. To develop a virtuous character, you do the things a virtuous person would do until, eventually, you begin to do what a virtuous person would do without even thinking about it—and, at that point, you have become a virtuous person! You fake it ‘til you make it, and faking it is part of making it: virtuous actions form virtuous habits, and virtuous habits make you a virtuous person.
But, if you aren’t virtuous—or, worse yet, if you are vicious—how are you going to know what a virtuous person would do? Virtue-ethical traditions recommend looking toward virtuous persons as moral exemplars—phronimoi (φρονημoi), bodhisattvas (बोधिसत्त्व), and junzi (君子). In the US context, we know this way of moral reasoning best through the question, “what would Jesus do?”, but virtue ethics traditions might recommend looking to a virtuous person who is easier to relate to; someone who is the kind of person we’d like to be like. There are all kinds of examples of people who are moral exemplars: your parents, Malala Yousafzai, and the Pope would all be good candidates. Moral exemplars can even have to be fictional: you can try to be more like the Black Panther, or Wonder Woman, for example.
In this course, virtue ethics will be most useful in thinking about personal choices rather than structural issues, especially issues of character and complicity.