LAVC Profession and Virtue Philosophy Discussion

Share in post number 3 what is your profession and MEAN-ingful action!

Discussion Posts (original and reply)

(Pojman 508-518) Aristotle The Ethics of Virtue

Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialist Ethics

Your post is worth a total of 12 points so remember to complete both Parts I and II by Sunday, January 21 at 11:55pm. The board remains open 3 days after the due date , but 4 points are deducted for late submissions. 

Objective:

• for students to demonstrate basic comprehension of moral theories using Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics, and Sartre’s Existentialist ethics.
• to correctly refer to/use the general terms and concepts from the reading(s).
• for students to engage in a classwide discussion on course material.

PART I (6 points):

“A virtue is an acquired human quality the possession and exercise of which tend 

to enable us to achieve those goods which are internal to practices and 

the lack of which effectively prevents us from achieving any such goods.” – Alasdair MacIntyre

Let’s imagine a scenario together. You find yourself in the middle of your chosen profession. It’s a typical day, and you are faced with a moral dilemma. For example, do you tell an elderly patient that he is terminally ill even though his culture prohibits telling elders such news? As a lawyer, you are hired to defend a client that you know committed the crime. Do you defend them?

Construct an independent scenario in a paragraph with the following details and what you should do, according to Aristotle’s instruction to find the mean (virtue) between excessive and deficient responses:

Use at least one quote from Aristotle’s text. You are welcome to find additional virtues or synonyms for vices, but provide a link to a credible source.

Finally, finish your scenario with a question/challenge to the class in the name of Sartre. How would Sartre challenge your response to the scenario and recommend that you act with his idea of radical freedom in mind? In other words, after you describe a virtue and how someone in your profession would respond to a moral dilemma, I want you to consider Sartre’s text on moral freedom. Given he is so different from Aristotle, what would he advise that you do in the same scenario? Describe his response. Use at least one quote from Sartre’s text to support your answer. Here is a link to Sartre’s reading.

PART II (6 points):

REPLY to a fellow classmate’s post about Sartre’s challenge to Aristotle’s mean-ingful action. Think critically about what your classmate described as Sartre’s moral response to the imagined scenario. Consider one or more of these critical questions in your response: Do you agree with the professional’s moral action in the imagined scenario described? Is Aristotle’s virtuous action better than Sartre’s recommendation? Explain. Is there a different moral priority that you can find in Sartre’s text to recommend a different action? What is the different moral priority and different resulting action? Are certain details left out of the scenario to begin with? If so, why are they important for moral consideration?  Use at least one quote from Sartre’s text to support your answer.