< Virtues

Introduction

Defining virtue as "excellence in being for the good" places a heavy burden on the concept of good. Intuitively we understand it as a conception of what is of most value in human life; what is regarded as a fully worthwhile life. Good can also be thought of as “character traits we are most likely to admire in others.” [1] Can we be more precise?

Behavior that increases human well-being is good.[2]This requires us to consider our own well-being along with the well-being of others. We can achieve both by pursing these goals for good behavior:

  1. Increase your own well-being.
  2. Do not diminish the well-being of others, and
  3. Enhance the well-being of others.

This can be accomplished by following these steps:

  1. Know what matters to you.
  2. Learn what matters to others.
  3. Recognize and respect reasonable limits to freedom; for yourself and others.
  4. Pursue what matters to you.
  5. Help others achieve what matters to them.

Let’s examine each of these in more detail.

What matters to you

Think deeply about what matters most to you. As a starting point, you may wish to consider the topics in the Wikiversity course on what matters. Also, you can study a variety of other concepts related to your well-being. For example:

  • The term quality of life refers to the general well-being of individuals and societies. The term is used in a wide range of contexts, including the fields of international development, healthcare, and politics.
  • Eudaimonia is a Greek word commonly translated as happiness or welfare; however, "human flourishing" has been proposed as a more accurate translation.
  • In positive psychology, flourishing is “to live within an optimal range of human functioning, one that connotes goodness, generativity, growth, and resilience.”
  • Happiness is a mental or emotional state of well-being characterized by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy.
  • Positive psychology is a recent branch of psychology whose purpose was summed up in 1998 by Martin Seligman and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: "We believe that a psychology of positive human functioning will arise, which achieves a scientific understanding and effective interventions to build thriving individuals, families, and communities."
  • The Character Strengths and Virtues handbook of human strengths and virtues represents the first attempt on the part of the research community to identify and classify the positive psychological traits of human beings. You may wish to acquire the various character strengths identified there.

Building good character is more about addition than subtraction. What I mean is this: when it comes to change, our focus is usually on the aspects of our lives that are bad. We try to cut out or cut off these negative or bad qualities. We try to improve by subtraction. That is not how you build good character.

What Matters to Others

There are several ways to learn what matters most to others. The most direct way is to ask the other person, perhaps by engaging them in a thoughtful dialogue. If that is not practical, then you can use empathy, symmetry, and the golden rule to extrapolate from your own experience to estimate their needs.

Empathy is a deep appreciation for another's situation and point of view. It provides you a respectful understanding of what others are experiencing and what they might want to have happen.

Symmetry, an apparent balance, helps you understand that what matters to others is likely to be similar to what matters to you if you were in their situation. In short, experiences similar to those that contribute to your well-being might also contribute to theirs.

These two ideas are often combined into the Golden Rule. Recent work by Harry Gensler recommends formulating the golden rule as: “Treat others only as you consent to being treated in the same situation.”

Actions that increase the survival and flourishing of individual sentient beings are good.[3]

Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration is an interfaith declaration. Drawing on many of the world's religious and spiritual traditions, it identifies four essential affirmations as shared principles essential to a global ethic. Similarly, the Charter for Compassion is a document that urges the peoples and religions of the world to embrace the core value of compassion.

Solutions to the Grand Challenges are good.

As an absolute minimum, it is certain that people want to survive and to be treated with dignity.

The Limits of Freedom

While people value their own freedom, symmetry requires that we also respect the freedom of others. It may be helpful to define the limits of your freedom using this symmetrical rule: “your freedom ends where mine begins.” This concept has been dramatized with quotes such as: "Your liberty to swing your fist ends just where my nose begins."[4] This establishes important restrictions, including:

First, do no harm. Because you value freedom from the harm of others, you therefore have an obligation to protect and preserve this freedom for others. This quickly places cruelty, cheating, lying, deception, manipulation, theft, violence, insult, humiliation, abuse, and other forms of malice out of bounds. The concept of categorical imperatives developed by philosopher Immanuel Kant provides a test for determining if actions are good.

Avoid trespassing into areas that infringe on others’ property, rights, and freedoms. While the word trespass is often somewhat narrowly defined as a direct violation of another person's property, the concept can easily be extended to include violation of the rights and freedoms of others.

Morality characterizes intentions, decisions, and actions as being either good (or right) or bad (or wrong). (Note that this characterization may present a false dilemma.) Morality seeks to guide us in treating others well. The following topics, related to morality, also seek to define good and bad ways of behaving toward others.

  • The Wikipedia article on Good and Evil begins to define the concepts of morally positive and morally negative objects, desires, or behaviors.
  • Summum bonum is a Latin expression meaning "the highest good" and is used in philosophy, particularly in medieval philosophy and in the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, to describe the ultimate importance, the singular and most ultimate end which human beings ought to pursue.
  • The common good describes a specific "good" that is shared and beneficial for all (or most) members of a given community. We have a responsibility to preserve and protect the common good.
  • Secular ethics is a branch of moral philosophy in which ethics is based solely on human faculties such as logic, reason or moral intuition, and not derived from purported supernatural revelation or guidance (which is the source of religious ethics). It seeks to provide a culturally and ideologically neutral basis for deciding right and wrong.
  • The wisdom and the future research center is exploring the future of moral reasoning.
  • Towards a Global Ethic: An Initial Declaration is an interfaith declaration, drafted initially by Dr. Hans Küng, in cooperation with the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions staff and Trustees and experts.
  • The Science of morality refers to a number of ethically naturalistic views. In meta-ethics, ethical naturalism bases morality on rational and empirical consideration of the natural world.
  • The American Humanist Association provides these Ten Commitments: Guiding Principles for Teaching Values in American's Public Schools.

Respect these limits to freedom of your behavior, and expect others to respect these limits to their behavior.

Increasing your well-being

Knowing what matters to you, while keeping in mind the restrictions that prevent you from diminishing the well-being of others enables you to act in ways that increase your well-being. Focus your time and energy on what matters. Completing the following assignment in the What Matters course may help you Spend Your Time on What Matters.

Increasing others’ well-being

Demonstrate your genuine concern for the well-being of others. Begin by respecting the rights of others, showing them kindness, and communicating honestly with them. At the risk of creating circular logic, the virtues describe behavior that benefits others’ well-being.

Everyday Good

Be good every day in these various ways:

Assignment

Decide what matters to you. Write it down. Consider completing the Wikiversity course on what matters.

Analyze how you spend your time. Are you focusing on what matters? What changes can you make to spend more time on what matters?

Make those changes and focus on what matters.

Treat others only as you consent to being treated in the same situation.

Quotations

“The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.” ~ St Augustine

References

  1. ↑ Adams, Robert Merrihew (2009). A Theory of Virtue: Excellence in Being for the Good. USA: Oxford University Press. p. 264. ISBN 978-0199552252. Page 19
  2. ↑ Harris, Sam (2011). The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. Free Press. p. 320. ISBN 978-1439171226.
  3. ↑ Shermer, Michael (January 20, 2015). The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom. Henry Holt and Co. p. 560. ISBN 978-0805096910.
  4. ↑ Similar quotes are attributed to several sources. See: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2011/10/15/liberty-fist-nose/

Further Reading

Students interested in learning more about the meaning of "good" may be interested in the following materials:

  • Seligman, Martin (2011). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being. Free Press. p. 368. ISBN 978-1439190753.
  • Greene, Joshua (December 30, 2014). Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them. Penguin Books. p. 432. ISBN 978-0143126058.
  • Kidder, Rushworth M. (1994). Shared Values for a Troubled World: Conversations with Men and Women of Conscience. Jossey-Bass. p. 332. ISBN 978-1555426033.
  • Rath, Tom; Harter, James K. (2010). Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements. Gallup Press. p. 240. ISBN 978-1595620408.
  • Gensler, Harry J. (2013). Ethics and the Golden Rule. Routledge. p. 256. ISBN 978-0415806879.
  • Harris, Sam (2011). The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. Free Press. p. 320. ISBN 978-1439171226.
  • Shermer, Michael (January 20, 2015). The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom. Henry Holt and Co. p. 560. ISBN 978-0805096910.
  • Ridley, Matt (April 1, 1998). The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation. Penguin Books. p. 304. ISBN 978-0140264456.
  • de Waal, Frans (March 10, 2014). The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 320. ISBN 978-0393347791.
  • Declaration toward a global ethic, Parliament of the World's Religions, September 4, 1993
  • Hunter, James Davison; Nedelisky, Paul (October 23, 2018). Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality. Yale University Press. p. 312. ISBN 978-0300196283.

I have not yet read the following books, but they seem interesting and relevant. They are listed here to invite further research.

  • Braintrust: What Neuroscience Tells Us about Morality
  • Being Good: A Short Introduction to Ethics
  • Ethics for Robots, by Derek Leben
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