It is not reported whether Babe Ruth spent any of the time he wasn’t smashing home runs on peeling back the onion of virtue ethics, nor for that matter, Colin Powell. One suspects neither had much down time, and what down time they did have they chose to spend it drinking liquor and chasing skirt in the case of Ruth; or, well, who knows what Powell did late at night. Perhaps pluck the strings of those still in office, count his Salesforce stock options, or whisper down the phone to other ex-world leaders as part of some power-hungry cult – see the World Economic Forum for details. Or perhaps just drink beer and eat Doritos while watching college football. Who knows…
Virtue ethics, then, is an approach, a philosophy, a sort of way of living that treats virtue and character as the main subjects, in contrast to other ways or systems that major more on the consequences of voluntary acts, principles or rules of conduct. Or wailing on one’s knees to some form of higher deity or living being in the sky. It is a line of thinking that is often set against two other major schools of thought in ethics, that of consequentialism – a theory that trucks out a view that the consequences of one’s actions are the ultimate basis for judgements about whether those actions are right or wrong; and deontology – an approach that believes the morality of an action should be based on whether that action itself is right or wrong under a series of rules, rather than based on the consequences.
As you might imagine, the whole shebang started with Socrates, and later gripped by the likes of Aristotle, and the Stoics. Now the Stoics are an interesting bunch. Stoicism is a form of Hellenistic philosophy that cropped up in the years following the death of Alexander the Great. We’re talking three hundred odd years BC, so quite a while ago. The stoics were hot on virtue and would lean in close and whisper that the practice of virtue – cue eyeballs darting left and right to check who was listening – would lead to any individual being able to achieve eudaimonia, a state of ‘good spirit’, a state which modern wellness gurus would recognise as ‘happiness’. It is a state of weightlessness of the mind, free from anxiety or longing. A perpetual state of being played out to the backdrop of Strictly Come Dancing, cheap chardonnay, and love.
The good news is that the Stoics identified a path to achieve such a giddy state of being, which involved a life spent practicing certain virtues in everyday life. Virtues such as courage or temperance or living in tune with nature. Think keeping bees, Classic FM and brewing your own hooch. It is the great Zeno of Citium who is cited with stoking the early coals. He’d shuffle about the Agora of Athens in his robe, suggesting to anyone who got too close that external things, like wealth, pleasure and cheap luggage are not good or bad, but have value as material for virtue to act upon. His ideas were quickly picked up, and his most influential protégé’ was the formidably bearded philosopher Chrysippus of Soli who headed the Stoic school after the former boxer and all-round man of the people, Cleanthes, passed on. Stoicism would become the most popular philosophy of the educated elite in the Hellenistic world and indeed, the wider Roman Empire.
Back to virtue theory then, and whilst the character of the individual is the accepted bedrock, there are some rumblings through the ranks and file over the specific virtues that should be singled out and given a special badge. For example, the great Plato believed that virtue is effectively an end to be sought, for which a friend might be useful means. The equally great, Aristotle though, suggested that the virtues function more as a means to safeguard human relations, without which one’s chances of getting into the VIP section of ‘happiness’ is likely to be thwarted. Virtues though, both in Plato’s Republic and Aristotle’s chunky tome on ethical theory, Nicomachean Ethics, feature prominently.
Virtue theory was passed on down the line with quick hands; from moralistic historians such as Livy, Plutarch and Tacitus. (As an aside, for those looking for an epic history of Rome this Christmas, look no further than Titus Livius’ monumental Ab Urbe Condita, ‘From the Founding City’, which starts with the earliest legends and romps through the founding of the Eternal City and the reign of Augustus. Ken Follet is nothing on the great Livy) Cicero, widely considered as Rome’s greatest orators and prose stylists, also embraced idea of virtues. How Rishi Sunak, up a ratings creek and no paddle, must dream of having a Cicero at his disposal, such was the man’s touch with an inked-up quill. Through Roman philosophy the virtues ran and on into Christian moral theology, largely through the hand and words of Ambrose of Milan, a thunderous theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan around the late 300s. The reformation was also flavoured by the virtues but the cart eventually ran off the road of mainstream philosophical thinking with the rise of utilitarianism and deontological ethics. Albeit virtue as a principle featured prominently amongst the thinking of 18th Century English Whigs, those who fired up the Scottish Enlightenment and, indeed, the great Founding Fathers of the U.S of A.
For those left frustrated, left scratching the neck and irritably muttering about how one might too find a state of eudaimonia, perhaps look no further than Aristotle, who composed a handy list of virtues to go after. A list of qualities that will show that a person is indeed a good person. A loose summary of the list reads as follows: have courage, be generous, and show restrain when the bacon rolls are put on the table. Be magnanimous, be great of mind and heart. Shun pettiness, face up to danger. Aim high, hold tight to ambition, but do so with good humour. Have patience, lean into the wind without complaint. Be honest, trustworthy, and fair. Try to be witty. Quip and wisecrack, albeit pick your audience. Try too, to be friendly, even if you find yourself dragged to a wine and cheese evening for the local Liberal Democrats. Try as hard as possible to be modest, and when justice is not done, go for it like a whippet out of trap 4 at Wimbledon. If that’s not enough, there are also intellectual virtues such as intelligence, theoretical wisdom, good sense, craftmanship and understanding, all of which sound a little beyond reach.
Perhaps just stick with Strictly and the Chardonnay and hope that, much like the taxman, eudaimonia finds you.
Hepburnsays 