Abstract
Virtue ethics in the West received its first extensive elaboration and defense in ancient Greek philosophy. Requiring the cultivation of true character, both of the ethical and intellectual kind, virtue ethics emphasizes developing character traits such as courage, honesty, and practical wisdom over deploying abstract theoretical principles as a way of contributing to individual happiness and social harmony. With rapid changes in social structures and technologies, ancient and medieval virtues may seem quaint and irrelevant today. Is virtue ethics suitable only for the sort of premodern societies in which great virtue ethicists like Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas lived or does the theory have something essential to contribute to pressing contemporary debates?. This paper argues the situational form of virtue ethics: Some essential virtues are applicable in most times and societies, including our own, but they necessarily are expressed in a variety of ways in different circumstances. I then briefly explore contemporary versions of the virtues that would help us navigate a world of rapidly evolving technology that threatens to undermine environmental and social sustainability. These virtues, suitably updated, are as badly needed today as they were thousands of years ago.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
See Pojman and Feiser (2009, pp. 46–47) for other examples of situationalism.
- 3.
Scientists long have investigated reciprocity and its evolutionary basis amongst other animals, especially primates. As F. B. M de Waal and S. F. Brosnan note: “The above considerations outline the steps of an evolutionary argument about how reciprocal cooperation may have come into existence. As such, it applies to organisms from fish to humans. This should not be taken to mean, though, that reciprocal help in human society is essentially the same as in guppies. This would be a fundamental error; the above theoretical framework only deals with the ultimate reasons for the existence of reciprocal exchange. That is, it provides an explanation for why animals engage in such behavior, and which fitness benefits they derive from it. It provides no explanation for how such cooperation is achieved, commonly referred to as the proximate explanation….” (de Waal and Brosnan 2006, p. 85). Thus, one might say that situationalism in virtue ethics is an analog to proximate explanation in the study of animal behavior.
References
Cornwell, W.: Human nature unbound: why becoming cyborgs and taking drugs could make us more human. In: Ricci, G.R. (ed.) Values and Religion, Religion and Public Life 37, pp. 65–92. Transaction Publishers, London (2011)
de Waal, F.B.M., Brosnan, S.F.: Simple and complex reciprocity in primates. In: Kappeler, P.M., van Schaik, C.P. (eds.) Cooperation in Primates and Humans. Springer, Berlin (2006)
Irwin, S.O.: Digital Media: Human-Technology Connection. Lexington Books, Lanham, MD (2016)
Millikan, R.G.: Language, Thought, and Other Biological Categories: New Foundations for Realism. A Bradford Book. Cambridge, MA (1984)
Pojman, L.J., Feiser, J.: Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong, 6th edn. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA (2009)
Pozner, V., Pozner, L.: Sandy Hook parents: online platforms are caving to hoaxers. https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/23/opinions/conspiracy-hoaxers-parkland-sandy-hook-social-media-pozner-opinion/index.html. Accessed on 12 November 2018
Rothman, J.: In the age of A.I., is seeing still believing? Advances in digital imagery could deepen the fake-news crisis—or help us get out of it. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/11/12/in-the-age-of-ai-is-seeing-still-believing. Accessed on 12 November 2018
Vallor, S.: Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting. Oxford UP, New York (2016)
Van Norden, B.W.: Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy. Cambridge UP, Cambridge (2007)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Cornwell, W. (2020). Virtue Ethics, Technology, and Sustainability. In: Al-Masri, A., Al-Assaf, Y. (eds) Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility—Volume 2. Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32902-0_42
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32902-0_42
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-32901-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-32902-0
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)