English 1A

Paper #1

3 June 2014 Understanding Virtues Virtues are important traits and morals for each person to learn. It means a behavior showing high moral standards. The essay by Kwame Anthony Appiah approaches the topic of ethical behavior with this sentence “Does the virtuous act make the agent virtuous or does the virtuous agent make the act virtuous?” He points out it is difficult to evaluate a situation and decide if it was the individual or the action that improved the circumstances. Humans are known for their flawed nature for a reason as Appiah points out “[the] Playful man. . . angry man. . . serious man. . . same fellow, different situations.” There are morals for each person, they can follow some and not the other but they are all important morals in the end. (Appiah 401)
Humans will not always address situations of ethical dilemma with the same matter or approach. For example, external factors like hunger level, fatigue and stress will influence a person’s response to a certain or particular situation. Given a different day and time that same individual may react quite differently because of their feelings. Everybody can relate. I also notice many actions that I may do resulting in this matter without realizing it. It’s from our human tendencies to respond to different scenarios with a moral dilemma.
Through our actions and experiences, a character is created. In the essay by Appiah, he explains the differences between situational ethics and virtue ethics. Situational ethics is often argued that many of the decisions we make can be directly influenced by the situations we find ourselves in, rather than the compassion that one finds. As I explained in the paragraph before, humans will not always address situations of ethical dilemma with the same matter of approach. In a personal experience, I have witness and experienced this many times. I’ve seen people get injured and nobody around them comes to aid them or ask for assistance because they don’t want to get involved. I’ve been in a car accident on the freeway once and I’m sure people saw it but nobody made a call so I had to call 911 myself.
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The virtues love, kindness, justice, and service is from what one authority says, while the Greeks virtues are temperance, wisdom, justice, and courage. Lastly the seven heavenly virtues which are chastity, temperance, clarity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility. “Being virtuous is part, at least, of what makes a life worthwhile,” says Appiah. I believe that following these virtues are essential to living a positive life. The first set of virtues, which are love, kindness, justice and service and are from one authority. “The connection between one heart and another, Attraction, affection and caring for a person, a place, an idea, or for life itself. A deep, tender, ineffable feeling of affection and solicitude toward a person, such as that arising from kinship, recognition of attractive qualities, or a sense of underlying oneness.” This virtue is very important for humans, because sometimes we stray away from love and kindness from all the hate we were taught. (Appiah 402)
Justice and service are simply doing right to others and our selves, respecting one another ourselves. “Being fair in all we do. Making amends when we have hurt or wronged others. Protecting everyone’s rights, including our own. Fair, impartial, giving a deserved response.” These are also important to any individual. We should learn to respect others and ourselves. Being fair, meaning to not lie or cheat to anyone and not taking advantage of people in a negative way. We should be true to ourselves and other people. (Appiah 403)
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The seven deadly sins are done and seen by humans everyday as well as the seven heavenly virtues. The seven deadly sins are Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Sloth, Envy, and Pride. The opposites are Chastity, Temperance, Charity, Diligence, Forgiveness, Kindness, and Humility. Lust and Chastity are opposites because Lust meaning excessive sexual desire, while Chastity meaning Purity. Chastity basically means abstinence before marriage. Sexual desire and Lust is human nature, but Chastity can be important for some for it can save you from Stds and unplanned pregnancies and divorces.
Gluttony and Temperance contrast each other, Gluttony meaning over-indulgence and Temperance meaning self-restraint. Gluttony derived from the Latin gluttire meaning to gulp down or swallow, means over-indulgence and over-consumption of food, drink or wealth items to the point of extravagance or waste. Temperance is "the habitual ability to resist the enticement of immediate pleasure in order to gain a greater though more remote good." They are clearly opposites of each other because one is over-consumption while the other is resisting over-consumption and pleasure. Many people don’t realize they are over consumers and humans need to reevaluate this and think about Temperance everyday. (Appiah 404) Charity is commonly known to everyone but is only done by a few while Greed is most likely used by many because people are more selfish than giving. Charity, is the act of giving generously to people that are lacking what they don’t have, most often it is money. Greed is holding on to everything you own even if you don’t need it, rather to giving it to someone that could use it, people have Greed because they don’t think it will benefit them in anyway because they are not rewarded themselves, they don’t want to sacrifice things for the greater good.
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Diligence and Sloth is a virtue and one of the sins because it has to do with your self-motivations. A Diligent person is going to get more things done than a slothful person. Diligence meaning labor and integrity and zeal is something Everybody should have in order to be successful. Being a Sloth is a one of the sin because it doesn’t benefit you, most likely a slothful person is wasting time, since it means being lazy.
Wrath and Forgiveness/Patience are opposites because Wrath means Anger, while Forgiveness means composure. People aren’t born with anger or hate. Wrath is a sin that is taught while Forgiveness is natural, meaning we were born to love and taught to hate. Forgiveness or composure is important for us to remember because everybody makes mistakes and when they do it is right to forgive and not hold a grudge. The virtue and sin, Kindness and Envy contrast because you can’t envy something and be kind at the same time. Kindness means being compassionate, having friendship and sympathy without being prejudice. Envy is jealously or the need to have something better than other or having just the same as the other person. “Rather than being grateful a Envious person may turn to voyeurism to feed the need to see what others have that envious want.” Lack of kindness can be from wanting want a individual has so they will not show true acts of kindness toward the person they are envious of. (Appiah 404) Lastly, the virtue Humility and the sin Pride is the most important because it will show whom you really are and can reflect your actions. Humility is being humble and is the modest behavior; it’s being selfless and is the act of giving respect to one another. “Giving credit where credit is due: not unfairly glorifying one’s own self.” While Pride is the complete opposite, it means you have the need to be considered the best, most beautiful and it could also mean the need for public acceptance. It means you think you are more important than others. For example a person looking for compliments rather than giving one. They are cocky people. Humility is what every body should practice, being humble is a great virtue to follow, because it is good karma and as they say “Pride comes before the fall.” Prideful people will eventually lose their cockiness from specific events and tend to become humble after their loss. (Appiah 406)
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All the virtues are extremely important to follow and practice but I feel that the most important virtues in my opinion are Diligence, Charity, Forgiveness and Humility. In the essay “The Case against Character” by Appiah he states, “To possess a virtue is to be a certain sort of person with a certain complex mindset.” I agree with Appiah because he is saying you have to understand them and it should come natural to you, it shouldn’t be forced upon your mind. He also says that Virtue ethicist claimed that having and exercising virtues contributes to making a persons life a good one and it is called eudemonia or flourishing. (Appiah 402)
In conclusion, Appiah touched a great topic to write about. The essay was great and I am positive many readers could learn from it and use it for their everyday lives. I agree that Virtues are a foundation for living a good life.