When I think of virtue ethics, I think about myself and what or how I think of individual character. Many people say that I am kind, caring and very considerate person. That always think about other people and how I can help them. This would be because my moral belief is that I treat others as I like to be treated. So if you want respect then you have to give respect. But I also think about how I feel when I help someone. So you may ask yourself, what does that have to do with virtue ethics? Aristotle who is a virtue ethicist from Greece says that a virtuous person is not one that does the right act but one who consistently does the right act and for the right reason (Waller, 2005, p. 98). I myself know that I am consistently kind to people and care very much for people in my life but also for the elderly, kids and pets and I do this for the right reasons and that would be because it makes me feel good about myself.
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Aristotle also says that we are what we repeatedly do and that excellence is not an act but a habit (Waller, 2005, p. 98). I can say that I agree with that because when go see my mom who lives in a senior building and some who know what I do for work and need help or if they just want to sit and talk or need a ride to the store. I am always willing to help them and they want to pay me but I refuse because it is a habit for me to be nice and kind to them. When I am out and about and I see a dog it is a habit that I stop and pat the dog and talk to them because I am an animal lover.
For me as I have stated I am a true animal lover so I do believe that not only humans but animals and insects should have some moral consideration. Tom Regan proposed that inherent worth need only be the subject of a life (Waller, 2005, p. 135) and I agree with him. What people forget about is that supposedly humans were apes way back when or should say humans evolved from gorillas. But animals of all species shapes and sizes have minds and feelings just like humans. They also have moral codes as well for example: a female gorilla has children and gives them love as well as teaches them how to survive and teaches her young right from wrong whether it is in eating a banana compared to pineapple or fighting with its siblings, just like a human mother does with her children. So it makes me wonder why anyone could be cruel to any animal.
For many people they may question whether morality really does exist. For me I would have to say how you can think that it does not. Humans are a species that live life socially and if there were no morals in the world we would have to think of all the craziness that would be in the world and people would not live socially. Without having morals, humans could become extinct because no one would have a care in the world of who can do whatever to whomever like murder, rape, theft and there would be no reason to stop any of that. So by having morals in the world most people do not commit murder and rape or steal from another even though some people do those things that are not morally correct by many standards. Morals help bring peace to the world.
The Rain Forest is an environmental dilemma for many years now. Some people do not care about the Rain Forest so they want to take the trees down to create products and not care about what how that affects life itself for humans or for the animals of all kind that live there and need to have it for survival. The Rain Forest not only affects the survival of animals but for humans as well. Then you have some people who believe that by taking down the trees in which will destroy the rain forest will affect humans as well as animals. These are the people that I agree with. It would be morally wrong to destroy that forest. Without the forest many of animals and insects that is needed for many different reasons that make the environment work in a positive way would disappear in return it would affect the environment itself. There are certain insects that eat other insects to make sure their populations do not get crazy and then you have the animals that use the water to survive and the most of all the trees that help keep the air clean and help with the process of oxygen. So morally it would be wrong to not only destroy the forest but to slowly be killing the animals. One way that they could prevent this would be to have a ban against anyone to cut trees for any reason in the rain forest. As humans we have already taken so much from the animals as well as from ourselves.
Having virtue ethics and morals help this world for the many different reasons which keep order our society as well as the society of animals. Some people are taught from their parents to have some code of honors or morals and some are taught but just do not agree with them. We as humans only learn so much from our parents then learn the rest as we grow and develop our own virtue beliefs and morals.
Cite Page
Waller, B. N. (2005). Consider Ethics Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues. New York:
Longman.
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