Description
Answer each of the following questions, in one (brief) paragraph for each question. Remember, no long, block-texts !
1. What does it mean to be a good (morally virtuous or excellent) person?
(Your answer should reflect that you have done some deep reading and thinking on the issue. Your answer need not repeat what you have read in the book or heard in class, but your answer should be developed beyond what you would have said in response to this question, if you had answered it before this semester began.)
2. What is the relationship, if any, between being a good person and being a happy person?
(To put this question more formally and to break it into different possible answers, look at this question as having four sub-questions: Is being a good person neither necessary nor sufficient for being a happy person? Is being a good person necessary but not sufficient for being a happy person? Is being a good person sufficient but not necessary for being a happy person? Is being a good person both necessary and sufficient for being a happy person?)
(These four options are mutually exclusive, so you may pick one (and only one) sub-question to answer with Yes, and give a one-paragraph defense of the specific answer you choose.)
As you respond to the two main questions above, remember that Virtue Theory holds that the virtues enable us to be effective in our lives. We need to be effective in the attainment of our life-goals in order to be happy. Virtue is power and so the virtues empower us to be effective, So virtue empowers us to attain our highest goals and thereby be happy.
Here is an opposite point of view, which constitutes a complete rejection of virtue theory:
Since exercising the virtues means consistently practicing rational self-control, and since rational self-control requires that we mortify our disordered desires, and pursue our desires only inasmuch as they are endorsed by reason, then working toward the virtues in our lives and in our character is a mistake that would prevent us from being happy.
This last, opposite theory to virtue theory can be stated more formally as (the claim that):
Rejection of virtue theory and virtue is necessary for happiness.
This assignment will not be graded “for completion.” Only thoughtful and careful answers will received a high point score.
