Theory-Building Activities: Virtue Ethics

This module provides activities that allow students to develop insights into the ethical approach commonly called virtue ethics. A previous module on moral exemplars has helped students to reflect on the characteristics and skills that make up individuals who consistently act for the good. This module builds on these insights and helps students identify and develop profiles for virtues pertinent to the occupational and professional domains. Students are provided with background information on virtue theory with emphasis on Aristotle's classical formulation and MacIntyre's recent attempt to see virtues as skills and traits cultivated to realize goods internal to a practice. In its original form, this module assigns virtues to small groups of 3 to 5 students. Students use a table format to "flesh out" their assigned virtue. Each group provides the others with copies of its virtue table. The result from students debriefing on their virtues and exchanging their virtue tables is a small virtue handbook that can be employed in subsequent decision-making exercises. This module is being developed as a part of an NSF-funded project, "Collaborative Development of Ethics Across the Curriculum Resources and Sharing of Best Practices," NSF SES 0551779.