Ethics for Dummies, by Panza & Potthast
After reading Ethics for Dummies, by Panza & Potthast, chapter 6, provide written answers to the following questions. Please give complete answers in complete sentences.
- What is virtue ethics, and how does it differ from other approaches to moral philosophy?
- What is a virtue? What does it mean to be virtuous?
- Contrast virtue, continence, incontinence, and vice.
- What is phronesis, and why is it important to virtue ethics?
- What is eudaimonia, and how is it connected to virtue?
- What is a telos, and how is it relevant to virtue ethics?
- What is the human good, according to Aristotle?
- What are the three parts of a human soul, and which one is uniquely human? Given this insight, to what conclusion was Aristotle led regarding the proper function of a human being?
- What is the human good, according to Confucius?
- What is ren, and how is it central to Confucian ethics?
- What is meant by saying that virtue is the middle path? Explain, using a specific virtue as an example.
- Can virtue be taught? What did Aristotle and Confucius think?
- What is a moral exemplar? Why are exemplars important in virtue ethics?
- What knowledge problems are entailed by virtue ethics?
- Why do some people object that virtue ethics is self-centered?
- How does virtue involve luck, and why might this fact be a problem for virtue ethics?