VIRTUE ETHICS: THE PATHWAY TO A SUSTAINABLE MORAL CHARACTER

Abstract

Every human society develops a set of ethical principles that guide the conducts of its members. In the ancient Greek society, various ethical norms were presented; popular among them were deontoloigism and teleologism. However, these two stood at extremes. This prompted Aristotle to propose an alternative. Greek philosopher Aristotle introduced the idea that ethics should focus on how we act, and less on the effects of our actions or the intentions behind them. This study undertook an analysis of the Aristotelian virtue ethics. The study was a qualitative work and so adopted the qualitative research design by relying on secondary sources for data collection. Thereafter, the expository and comparative evaluative methods were used for data analysis. The study found out that the virtue ethics of Aristotle has been conceived and interpreted differently by various philosophers and epochs. It is the conclusion of this paper that Aristotle‟s virtue ethics remains timeless even in the contemporary society. Its right interpretation and application can improve contemporary society which has almost gone bereft of morality.