38 What are challenges to virtue ethics?

Virtue ethics, like deontology, can make much intuitive sense to us. This is because our personal ethics are often based on principles that can be listed as virtues, such as trustworthiness or courage. Yet, as in our prior frameworks, virtue ethics has its share of challenges.

First, consider the problem of taking any virtue too far. One could be courageous, but courage taken too far can become stupidity. Or, one can be gentle, but so gentle that one is afraid to make hard decisions that may make others uncomfortable. Thus, any virtue taken to an extreme may become a vice. Aristotle’s solution to this was the principle of the “golden mean,” which says that behaving morally may require finding middle ground between extremes.

Second, relatedly, what should we do when virtues appear to contradict each other? For instance, gentleness and truthfulness may require different things in an interaction with others. Virtue ethics provides little guidance on how to prioritize between these two virtues.

Third, as with deontology, applying virtue ethics in a business setting may be daunting. What role does a corporation play in society? Is it to simply maximize shareholder profit? Does it have other roles? If so, what virtues may help it achieve those goals, and who gets to decide? These are questions without simple answers in many instances.

You can read more on virtue ethics here, from the Markulla Center.