The Four Ways to Learn and Practice Virtue Ethics
We need virtue ethics. That’s the bottom line of an article by Martin Butler, who argues that we should teach virtue ethics to our kids and to ourselves. He observes that a lot of contemporary discussions about ethics induce, especially in young people, what he terms “a kind of paralysis of neutralism, a kind of ‘some people say this and others say that,’” which is detrimental to our moral development as individuals, as well as to social and political discourse. (See here for my handy guide to talking your friends out of moral relativism.)
Butler also points out that, while the Scylla of moral relativism seems to be receding in recent years, the Charybdis of moral absolutism has in the meantime raised its ugly head. A few minutes spent on social media, or watching television commentaries, will make clear that an increasing number of people (on both the Right and the Left) have become intransigent about their views on morality, regarding dissenting opinions — and the people who uphold them — as evil. As philosopher Cathy Mason, quoted by Butler, puts it: “Properly listening to someone involves thinking that the speaker might have something to tell us, that they may know some things that we do not.” There appears to be precious little “proper listening” out there at the moment. And here is perhaps one of the most convincing arguments by Butler for why we need…
