Chapter 11: Virtue Ethics

Fine words and an insinuating appearance are seldom associated with true virtue — Confucius

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out. – Proverbs 10:9

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. — Aristotle

We will be known forever by the tracks we leave — Dakota Saying

We briefly explored virtue ethics in our chapter on Morality and the Good Life when we looked at Plato’s Republic. Nearly all ancient cultures stressed the importance of character and of developing a live of virtue. In ancient China Confucius advocated for this in his Analects. In ancient Israel the Wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible (Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, etc.) likewise stressed character as primary for morality. A large portion of Buddhist teachings from ancient India and China stress the need for strong character to move along the spiritual path.