Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 10

Ethics - Essay Example It stresses that morality only acts as the driving force for the individual’s ethical and virtuous behavior, rather than the individual exhibiting ethical behavior because of certain rules, to garner expected consequences and because of certain social contexts or compulsions. Standards and concepts of virtue ethics or virtuous behavior were put forth by ancient thinkers like Aristotle and Confucius. Aristotle classifies virtue as moral virtue and intellectual virtue while defining the dual forms of virtue. â€Å"Virtue, then, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral, intellectual virtue in the main owes both its birth and its growth†¦.. while moral virtue comes about as a result of habit, whence also its name (ethike) is one that is formed by a slight variation from the word ethos (habit).† (Aristotle). Thus, Aristotle thinks that moral virtue is the result of habits that an individual forms in his/her life. Moral virtue is not an inborn quality, on the other hand, it is an characteristic, that an individual acquires by habit. â€Å"From this it is also plain that none of the moral virtues arises in us by nature; for nothing that exists by nature can form a habit contrary to its nature.† (Aristotle). When a person has a habit of doing virtuous things, the quality of virtue is imbibed in his/her behavior. Aristotle provides the examples of builders and lyrep layers to prove his point regarding the role played by habit in the development of virtue. He explains that to carry out a particular work, an individual is required to learn that work first and this learning is acquired by doing that work. Aristotle further states that intellectual virtue is developed in an individual, owing to the training and education he/she receives. Moral virtue is formed, owing to the habit of the person for doing virtuous things. However, to develop this habit, the person has to learn about virtue and it is here that