Virtue Ethics Issues - Essay Example

Socrates, Plato, and others asked, “what traits of character make one a good man?”. According to Christianity, morality is a divine command; the fact of applying reason in identifying what’s moral and what isn’t.

Jesus was on different occasions asked if there was a particular right way of doing things, like the proper method of worship, or what to do to gain eternal life. In His responses to all such questions, Jesus said there were no specific ways of doing things right; that there was no set of rules or laws. Renaissance came up with moral law, which is what determined the right or wrong thing to do. Many later-day philosophers, such as Anscombe (1958), have disagreed with the renaissance view, insisting there shouldn’t be any law because, in any case, there can’t be a law without a lawgiver.

Virtues are defined by Aristotle as character traits manifested in habitual action. He says no virtue exists in the extremes. Rather, virtue comes in between the two extremes. For instance, courage comes in between cowardice and foolhardiness. In both Christianity and philosophy, virtue ethics is not dictated by any set of laws. In both cases, virtue ethics is not in what one does or their action, but rather lies in their character.