Week 4 Disc 1
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Philosophy
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Apr 3, 2024
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How would a virtue ethicist reply
to someone who says that they want to
do more regarding the environment or they want to be more courageous but are too “weak willed” to do that?
I have been in the military for 16 years. Until Week 4 of Philosophy I never put virtue ethic theories and the military together. I am going to try and discuss virtue as it relates to integrity as well as how Aristotelian theories can improve the integrity of Airman. I enjoyed Magnanimity and Integrity as Military Virtues (Robinson, 2007) and its exploration into integrity in the military. The United Sates Air Force has 3 core values that we consider foundational to our military service, integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do. All three have a connection to ethical theories, but I am going to focus on integrity. In practice we define this virtue as doing the right thing when no one is looking. This runs parallel to the author’s statement “The military needs soldiers who will resist peer pressure to misbehave and who will do what is right not only when the gaze of others is upon them, but also when it is not” (Robinson, pg. 263, 2007). This view is very cut and dry, but I have seen the problems with this in reality. The military is a melting pot. We have Airman from every walk of life, culture, race, religion, many different countries, etc. The definition of integrity is different from person to person. Some people have no issues with stealing because of how they grew up, lying to avoid negative consequences. Robinson comes to the same conclusion “Unfortunately, ‘people of integrity can do horrific things and maintain their integrity so long as they are acting in accordance with their core commitments (Robinson, pg. 263, 2007). The military’s rigid definition of integrity would benefit from the addition of Aristotelian virtue ethics. Connecting Airman with ethical role models is one way of helping provide them an example of good character to follow (Pelt, slide 48, 2002). Aristotle’s view on habit and character are an important
pathway to “real” integrity as well. Having a good character might not come naturally to certain Airman. Teaching Airman to practice making appropriate decisions and displaying “good” behaviors, if repeated will become habit (Thames, Chapter 5, 2008). Aristotle states that honesty,
courage, generosity are all habits. If as a service the Air Force focused on building up Airman with these Aristotelian theories on character, the proper sense of integrity will naturally follow.
Virtue ethics would reply to the question “I want to be more courageous but am too weak willed to do that” simple, practice courage. This person has a deficiency of courage. They are sitting on the one extreme on the spectrum of courage. On the other extreme the person would be fearless to the point of being seemingly suicidal (Pelt, Slide 59, 2002). If this person truly wants to be more courageous, they need to make courage habitual. They need to become a Temperate person
(Pelt, Slide 9, 2002). If they practice being courageous over and over again eventually they will be able to control their desire to be “weak willed”. This does not mean they should seek out situations in which courage is needed. It means to make the right “courageous” decision at the right time, in the right situation, for the right thing, for the right people, and in the right state of mind (Pelt, Slide 41, 2002).
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