Virtue Ethics Approach Research Articles

Consumption Practices: A Virtue Ethics Approach

ABSTRACT:Ethical research on consumption has focused mainly on the obligations, principles and values guiding consumers' actions and reasons for action. In doing so, it has concerned itself mostly with such bounded contexts as voluntary simplifiers, anti-consumption movements or so-called ‘ethical consumers,’ thereby fostering an artificial opposition between ethical and non-ethical consumption. This paper proposes virtue ethics as a more apt conceptual framework for the ethical analysis of consumption because it takes into account the developmental dynamic triggered by engagement in consumption practices. We build on MacIntyre's goods-virtues-practices-institutions framework and Beabout's concept of a domain-relative practice and argue that when engaging in consumption activities, agents may pursue goods internal to practices, further their individual life narratives and contribute to the good of their communities, thus developing virtues that perfect themselves both as consumers and as ethical agents.

A Response to Gaffney: Teammates and the Games they Play

In this essay I endorse Gaffney’s paradoxical analysis that supports the right over the good, ‘horizontal commitments’ to teammates over ‘vertical loyalties’ to the cause of winning. However, I attempt to present two friendly amendments—by adding a second factor to the vertical element (i.e., playing well, meeting the demands of the test) and by showing that a virtue ethics approach is needed in certain situations. I conclude that Gaffney’s deontological stance serves him well in the Hope Solo case, but might not be as effective in other circumstances.

The Leadership Role of the Ethicist

The pervasive presence of Information and Communication technologies has profound effects on cultural norms and values. This relationship is most commonly referred to in terms of values embedded in a technology (Nissenbaum, 2001). To mitigate potential threats to values, researchers from a variety of disciplines advocate in favor of incorporating ethics into research and design processes. As Boenink (2013) rightly points out, however, there is little work done that outlines exactly what it is that the ethicist does when engaged in ‘ethics in the lab'. This paper aims to fill the gap that Boenink has identified and to contribute to the ongoing discussions related to ethics in the lab. The following work will review what the ethicist does in terms of the tasks of the ethicist as articulated by van Wynsberghe and Robbins (2013) and will present two case studies as examples to illustrate the different role of the ethicist in each. The issue of central importance for this paper is how the ethicist's role differs from one case to the next and what guides this shift. For insight the paper looks to the work of Manders-Huits and Zimmer (2009) and their suggestion of the ‘leadership role'. Finally, it will argue that a virtue ethics approach should be taken in order to guide the ethicist in these divergent roles.

Virtue: The Missing Ethics Element in Emotional Intelligence

The Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI) framework of Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis has gained significant impact in business leadership and management development. This paper considers the composition of the various versions of the ECI and its successor the Emotional and Social Competency Inventory to determine the nature of any appeal to ethics or moral competence within these frameworks. A series of concerns regarding the ethical limitations of the frameworks are presented with arguments supported by the relevant literature across the Emotional Intelligence (EI), competency theory and ethics fields. Based on a review of the ECI competencies in terms of their definitional constructs, it appears possible for an unethical manager or leader to demonstrate EI competence. Several cases involving high-profile business leaders, who were once lauded but later found to have acted unethically, are analysed. The authors consider the capacity of unethical leaders and managers to fulfil EI competence an issue of concern. The inclusion of an ethical management cluster and a number of competencies based on virtue ethics is proposed to meet this concern. Such an inclusion would address the critical issue of the purpose to which an EI competence is applied. Argument supporting the value of a virtue ethics approach as opposed to utilitarian or duty-based ethics approaches is also presented. Finally, a proposed exemplar of an ethically informed ECI framework is included for consideration.

Beyond just war: a virtue ethics approach

Foreword C.Card Preface Introduction: The State of Ethics of War The Moral Problem of War Just War Reconsidered From Rights to Virtues War as an Evil The Philosophy of Co-Existence Theoretical Implications and Challenges Practical Implications and Challenges Is War Ever Justified? Bibliography Index

Furthering the sceptical case against virtue ethics in nursing ethics

In a recent article in this journal I presented a sceptical argument about the current prominence of virtue ethics in nursing ethics. Daniel Putman has responded with a defence of the relevance of virtue in nursing. The present article continues this discussion by clarifying, defending, and expanding the sceptical argument. I start by emphasizing some features of the sceptical case, including assumptions about the nature of sceptical arguments, and about the character of both virtue ethics and nursing ethics. Then I respond to objections of Putman's such as that, according to virtue ethics, virtue is relevant to the whole of a human life, including one's behaviour in a professional context; and that eudaimonia should be central in explaining and motivating a nurse's decision to enter the profession. Having argued that these objections are not compelling, I go on to discuss an interesting recent attempt to reassert the role of virtue ethics in the ethics of professions, including nursing. This centres on whether role-specific obligations - e.g. the obligations that arise for a moral agent qua lawyer or mother - can be accommodated in a virtue ethics approach. Sean Cordell has argued that the difficulty of accommodating role-specific obligations results in an 'institution-shaped gap' in virtue ethics. He suggests a way of meeting this difficulty that appeals to the ergon of institutions. I endorse the negative point that role-specific obligations elude virtue ethics, but argue that the appeal to the ergon of institutions is unsuccessful. The upshot is further support for scepticism about the virtue ethics approach to nursing ethics. I end by gesturing to some of the advantages of a sceptical view of virtue ethics in nursing ethics.

Ethical guidelines and the prevention of abuse in healthcare

In obstetrical and gynaecological healthcare, patients often find themselves in a vulnerable position. Sensitive issues such as sexual and reproductive health are addressed and certain procedures can be experienced as abusive. According to research a lifetime prevalence of abuse in healthcare (AHC) can be assumed for 13-28% of female patients in the Nordic countries. In the present study we analyse the content of ethical documents for healthcare professionals within obstetrics and gynaecology in Sweden, in order to find out to what extent ethical guidelines consider issues that have shown to be related to the occurrence of AHC. We searched the literature to find empirical data on AHC. Guidelines for nurses, midwives and physicians were selected. After developing an analytical framework based on the empirical data the content of the ethical guidelines was analysed. The various ethical guidelines for staff working within obstetrics and gynaecology differ distinctively from each other regarding their content of issues that are related to AHC. Issues that were mostly disregarded were: considering the patient's perspective and the patients' possible experience of violence, considering power imbalances within healthcare, sexual misconduct, how to deal with other professional's ethical misconduct and how professionals relate to each other. We found the ethical guidelines of the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and of the International Confederation of Midwives to be those which contained most of the issues that have empirically shown to be important in regard to AHC. While staff members from different professions may share responsibility for the same patient, their ethical guidelines vary considerably. To become a possible resource for prevention of AHC, we suggest that ethical guidelines in healthcare should be revised following empirical research on ethical conduct. As ethical guidelines cannot be effective by their existence only, we would like to initiate a discussion on the function and use of ethical guidelines in general and regarding AHC in particular. Being aware that ethical guidelines are only a part of ethics in healthcare, however, we envision a broader approach to the aim of preventing AHC, where research is encouraged on how a virtue ethics approach could be applied.

The Virtue of Governance, the Governance of Virtue

ABSTRACT:The current economic and preceding financial crises seem to provide evidence in favour of the self-destruction thesis of capitalism. Responses to the crisis have been polarised. Some suggest that regulatory changes are all that is needed. Others suggest the need to change the economic system by developing a new global economic ethic. The first is too limited, the second too utopian.This article suggests that a MacIntyrean virtue ethics approach provides both a more convincing diagnosis of the problem and leads to a more workable prescription. First, we need to understand the internal contradictions of the tradition that has developed of how to ’do‘ business. Then we need the virtues to be exercised inside practices and institutions. But virtue itself needs to be institutionalised; we need an appropriate governance of virtue in organizations. Even though governance is usually taken to ‘crowd out’ virtue, this article proposes an approach to governance that ‘crowds in’ virtue.

A reply to ‘Scepticism about the virtue ethics approach to nursing ethics’ by Stephen Holland: the relevance of virtue in nursing ethics

Nursing PhilosophyVolume 13, Issue 2 p. 142-145 A reply to ‘Scepticism about the virtue ethics approach to nursing ethics’ by Stephen Holland: the relevance of virtue in nursing ethics Daniel A. Putman PhD, Corresponding Author Daniel A. Putman PhD Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin – Fox Valley, Menasha, WI, USADr Daniel Putman, Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin – Fox Valley, 1478 Midway Road, Menasha, WI 54952, USA. Tel.: +1 920 832 2609; fax: +1 920 832 2674; e-mail: dan.putman@uwc.eduSearch for more papers by this author Daniel A. Putman PhD, Corresponding Author Daniel A. Putman PhD Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin – Fox Valley, Menasha, WI, USADr Daniel Putman, Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin – Fox Valley, 1478 Midway Road, Menasha, WI 54952, USA. Tel.: +1 920 832 2609; fax: +1 920 832 2674; e-mail: dan.putman@uwc.eduSearch for more papers by this author First published: 09 March 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1466-769X.2011.00513.xCitations: 5Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume13, Issue2April 2012Pages 142-145 RelatedInformation

‘Silent Citizenship Educators’ in Dutch Catholic Schools: Exploring Teachers’ Moral Beliefs About Citizenship in Relation to Their Conduct of Citizenship Education

Abstract In this article we adopt a virtue ethical approach to study teachers’ moral beliefs about citizenship and their relation to two kinds of teacher behaviour in citizenship education: (1) teachers’ modelling behaviour, and (2) the way they arrange moral classroom discussions. We believe that a virtue ethical approach would appeal especially to religious schools, which is why we conducted our study in Catholic primary schools. Two hunderd and three teachers at 20 Catholic schools were involved. Teachers’ beliefs and behaviours were defined and operationalised from a community-centred perspective, because we expected that perspective to fit the context of a Catholic school. We found that these teachers indeed hold community-centred views on citizenship, the more so if they frequently attend church. Another important finding is that teachers do not necessarily show and share their beliefs about citizenship with their students. From a virtue ethical point of view, however, they should not be afraid to do so. As moral educators, especially in a religious school, teachers are allowed, even obliged, to name, explain and defend their beliefs and values.

Virtue and Climate Ethics

How do we deal with global warming? Recent moral discussions on climate change focus on what governments and global institutions ought to do in order to mitigate and adapt to global warming. States and international organizations need to adopt relevant policies and programs that address climate change. These policies and programs however need to be complemented by an ethics that cultivate the virtues needed to live in a warmer world. In this paper, I will propose a virtue ethics approach to climate change. Virtue ethics as a normative moral theory focuses on developing and cultivating the right attitude and disposition rather than principles and duties regarding a moral issue. An ethics based solely on principles and duties may not be enough to curtail global warming, because they only regulate and control human behavior but do not shape and mold the right character necessary for climate change mitigation and adaptation.

A Virtue Ethics Approach to Framing Troublesome Diagnoses

Virtue ethics can point the way toward an appropriate approach to communicating a diagnosis of nonepileptic seizures.

의학 비전문직업성, 탈전문화와 덕 윤리

Medical unprofessionalism and the deprofessionalization of medicine have of late become serious concerns to physicians, medical educators, and the public. Medical professionalism, which signifies a set of values, behaviors, and a relationship that underpins the trust the public places in physicians, is a core feature of medical practice. Commercialism and consumerism in medicine are among the main factors currently contributing to medical unprofessionalism and the deprofessionalization of medical practice. The unprofessionalism and deprofessionalization of physicians produce negative images of physicians. In this article we argue for a virtue-ethics approach to solving the problems of medical unprofessionalism and deprofessionalization. We argue for the promotion of certain virtues among physicians and the need for virtuous role models. Furthermore, we claim that since physicians are also members of society,the nurturing of virtue within the medical profession both promotes and requires the nurturing of virtue within society at large.

Virtue, Privacy and Self-Determination

The ethical problem of privacy lies at the core of computer ethics and cyber ethics discussions. The extensive use of personal data in digital networks poses a serious threat to the user’s right of privacy not only at the level of a user’s data integrity and security but also at the level of a user’s identity and freedom. In normative ethical theory the need for an informational self-deterministic approach of privacy is stressed with greater emphasis on the control over personal data. However, scant attention has been paid on a virtue ethics approach of information privacy. Plotinus’ discussion of self-determination is related to ethical virtue, human freedom and intellectual autonomy. The Plotinian virtue ethics approach of self-determination is not primarily related to the sphere of moral action, but to the quality of the self prior to moral practice. In this paper, it is argued that the problem of information privacy should be reconsidered in the light of Plotinus’ virtue ethics and his notion of self-determination.

Considering virtue: public health and clinical ethics

As bioethicists increasingly turn their attention to the profession of public health, many candidate frameworks have been proposed, often with an eye toward articulating the values and foundational concepts that distinguish this practice from curative clinical medicine. First, I will argue that while these suggestions for a distinct ethics of public health are promising, they arise from problems within contemporary bioethics that must be taken into account. Without such cognizance of the impetus for public health ethics, we risk developing a set of ethical resources meant exclusively for public health professionals, thereby neglecting implications for curative medical ethics and the practice of bioethics more broadly. Second, I will present reasons for thinking some of the critiques of dominant contemporary bioethics can be met by a virtue ethics approach. I present a virtue ethics response to criticisms that concern (1) increased rigor in bioethics discourse; (2) the ability of normative theory to accommodate context; and (3) explicit attention to the nature of ethical conflict. I conclude that a virtue ethics approach is a viable avenue for further inquiry, one that leads us away from developing ethics of public health in a vacuum and has the potential for overcoming certain pitfalls of contemporary bioethics discourse.

Toward a Nexus of Virtue

Table of ContentsI. Introduction 4II. Virtue Ethics 8III. Virtue and the Limits of Law 18A. The Inadequacy of Regulatory Solutions 19B. Can Law Make Men Moral? 22IV. Corporations and Virtue 29A. The Corporation as a Nexus of Contracts 30B. Corporate Constituencies and Virtue 32C. Virtue and Corporate Law-A Diagnosis 43D. Virtue and Corporate Law-A Prescription 561. Expansion of the Business Judgment Rule 562. The Shareholder Primacy Norm Revisited 653. Importance of Corporate Culture 684. A Product of Society at Large 775. Structural Remedies 80V. Conclusion 82I. IntroductionCould virtue have prevented the financial crisis? Possibly.Although the predominant narrative has characterized the crisis as one of inadequate financial regulation1 (rebutted by an opposite diagnosis, which lays the blame essentially on too much regulation2), sustained attention has not been focused upon the critical roles that virtue and character (or, more aptly, the lack thereof) have played.3 Instead of framing the crisis as essentially a matter of improperly structured economic incentives, one could easily frame the crisis as largely the result of rampant nonfeasance4 and malfeasance.5 Such a framing would suggest a set of responses due to recognition that virtuous dispositions would have countered such ethical shortcomings. (Among the many virtues implicated here would be justice, courage, and truthfulness,6 in addition to the virtue of simply doing one's duty.7) In short, and with apologies to the National Rifle Association, regulation (inadequate or otherwise) didn't kill the economy-people killed the economy.8Given the predominant narrative, it comes as no surprise that the policy prescriptions that have followed the most recent financial crises (such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act9 in 2002 and the Dodd-Frank Act10 in 2010) focus on regulation and not people. Put differently, these prescriptions do not attempt to lead market participants to better behavior via an improvement of character- they simply require better behavior.11 As shall be discussed, it is far from clear that the imposition of mandatory rules and regulations can foster the development of virtue and bring about the kind of improvement in character that is so critically needed to forestall the next financial crisis.12 Indeed, one could fairly say that by failing to consider virtue as a part of the solution, both Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd-Frank largely rely on the very same principles and types of solutions that took the economy to the brink of collapse.13 As one article put it, we need remedies different from those designed to prevent the greedy, the power obsessed, or the completely self-interested from breaking the law or acting unethically.14Finally, and particularly disturbing, an examination of the past crises suggests that the problem facing corporate America rims deeper than simply bad people doing bad things-it seems to extend to good people doing bad things as well.15 This opens the possibility that existing law and regulation not only fail to promote virtue but may actually be working to undermine it.16This Article argues that policymakers should take into account character and virtue more seriously than they do currently. It suggests further that a good place to start would be the field of corporate law.In so doing-by focusing on character and virtue, instead of economics, rules, and regulations-this Article proffers a virtueethics approach to corporate governance. For unlike more common ethical systems, which are ordinarily utilitarian or duty-based, virtue ethics stresses the role of character and individual morality.17In the pages that follow, I shall make the case for applying virtue ethics to corporate law. Part II of this Article will provide a background and summary of virtue-ethics philosophy. …

UNDERSTANDING DOCTORS' ETHICAL CHALLENGES AS ROLE VIRTUE CONFLICTS

This paper argues that doctors' ethical challenges can be usefully conceptualised as role virtue conflicts. The hospital environment requires doctors to be simultaneously good doctors, good team members, good learners and good employees. I articulate a possible set of role virtues for each of these four roles, as a basis for a virtue ethics approach to analysing doctors' ethical challenges. Using one junior doctor's story, I argue that understanding doctors' ethical challenges as role virtue conflicts enables recognition of important moral considerations that are overlooked by other approaches to ethical analysis.

Nasogastric feeding at the end of life: A virtue ethics approach

The use of Nasogastric (NG) feeding in the provision of artificial nutrition and hydration at the end of life has, for the most part, been regarded as futile by the medical community. This position has been led chiefly by prevailing medical data. In Singapore, however, there has been an increase in its utilization supported primarily by social, religious and cultural factors expressly to prolong life of the terminally ill patient. Here this article will seek to review the ethical and clinical impact of this treatment and provide some understanding for such decisions in the light of the Duty of Palliative Care [DoPC]. Complemented by virtue ethics theory, the DoPC highlights and seeks to realize the individual case specific goals of care that maximize comfort and quality of life of the patient in the face of rapid attenuation of treatment options and the eminence of the final outcome by considering each of these factors individually in order to provide the best outcome for the patient and the family.

THE VIRTUE ETHICS APPROACH TO BIOETHICS

This paper discusses the viability of a virtue-based approach to bioethics. Virtue ethics is clearly appropriate to addressing issues of professional character and conduct. But another major remit of bioethics is to evaluate the ethics of biomedical procedures in order to recommend regulatory policy. How appropriate is the virtue ethics approach to fulfilling this remit? The first part of this paper characterizes the methodology problem in bioethics in terms of diversity, and shows that virtue ethics does not simply restate this problem in its own terms. However, fatal objections to the way the virtue ethics approach is typically taken in bioethics literature are presented in the second section of the paper. In the third part, a virtue-based approach to bioethics that avoids the shortcomings of the typical one is introduced and shown to be prima facie plausible. The upshot is an inviting new direction for research into bioethics' methodology.

The virtues in international society

Although there has been a significant growth in the literature on the ethics of international politics in recent years, much of this has focused on the normative structure of international relations and has downplayed the role of individuals in constituting the understandings and actions in this practice. However, individual agency and accountability are apparent in recent world events. Meanwhile, developments in moral philosophy have increasingly led scholars to re-examine the role that individual character traits — virtues — have in affecting how norms are selected and operationalized. Building on these insights, I argue here that a fully realized appreciation of the morality of international politics requires us to consider what character traits — virtues — its individual participants are expected to exhibit to support and realize its norms. To do so, I begin by outlining how the virtues are deemed to underpin ethical practice and highlight two forms of analysis that may be used to explore this: decision-oriented virtue ethics and constitutive virtue ethics. I then suggest that these can be used to analyse the ethical foundations of international society. Specifically, I adopt a constitutive virtue ethics approach to show how the virtues help to constitute international society using the case study of the establishment of the International Criminal Court. In the process, I aim to highlight both the extent to which the virtues are a feature of the rhetoric of global politics, and — more importantly — how they play a significant role in normative practice.