Virtue Ethics Assessment

Virtue Ethics Assessment

Evaluate ethical questions through the lens of character and virtue rather than rules or consequences. Analyze what a person of practical wisdom would do and what character traits are being developed.

When to Use

• User asks "Is this the right thing to do?"
• Ethical dilemma without clear rule-based answer
• User wants to understand character implications of choices
• Request for "what would a good person do?"
• Someone is trying to justify a questionable action
• Decision involves competing goods rather than good vs. evil
• User wants to develop better character or habits
• Standard ethical frameworks (deontology, utilitarianism) feel inadequate

Inputs

The Virtue Ethics Framework

Core Principle

Virtue ethics asks not "what rule should I follow?" or "what outcome should I maximize?" but "what kind of person should I be?" and "what would a person of good character do here?"

Step 1: Identify the Virtues at Stake

Determine which character traits are relevant to this situation:

Cardinal Virtues:

• Practical Wisdom (Phronesis) - Sound judgment about what to do in particular situations
• Courage - The mean between cowardice and recklessness regarding fears
• Temperance - Moderation in pleasures and desires
• Justice - Giving others their due; fairness

Other Key Virtues:

• Honesty - Truthfulness in speech and self-presentation
• Generosity - Appropriate giving of time, money, assistance
• Compassion - Appropriate concern for others' suffering
• Loyalty - Faithfulness to commitments and relationships
• Integrity - Consistency between values and actions
• Humility - Accurate self-assessment; not excessive pride
• Industry - Appropriate effort and work ethic

Step 2: Apply the Practical Wisdom Test

Ask: "What would a person of practical wisdom (phronesis) do in this situation?"

A person of practical wisdom:

• Sees the situation clearly without self-deception
• Understands what's at stake for all parties
• Knows from experience what truly matters
• Can discern the right course when rules conflict
• Acts on their judgment without excessive deliberation
• Is neither rigid nor unprincipled

Step 3: Examine the Action's Effect on Character

Every choice shapes character through habit. Ask:

• What kind of person am I becoming by making this choice?
• If I do this repeatedly, what trait am I developing?
• Would I be proud to have this choice be known?
• Does this move me toward or away from the person I want to be?

Step 4: Consider the Virtuous Mean

For any virtue involved, identify:

• The vice of excess (too much of this quality)
• The vice of deficiency (too little)
• The virtuous mean for this person in this situation

Step 5: Account for Particular Circumstances

Virtue ethics recognizes that right action depends on context:

• Who is involved and what are the relationships?
• What is the specific situation and its constraints?
• What is the person's role and its responsibilities?
• What would a person with good judgment do here specifically?

Workflow

Step 1: Gather and Review Inputs

Collect all relevant information:

• Review the provided data and context
• Identify key parameters and constraints
• Clarify any ambiguities or missing information
• Establish success criteria

Step 2: Analyze the Situation

Perform systematic analysis:

• Identify patterns and relationships
• Evaluate against established frameworks
• Consider multiple perspectives
• Document key findings

Step 3: Generate Recommendations

Create actionable outputs:

• Synthesize insights from analysis
• Prioritize recommendations by impact
• Ensure recommendations are specific and measurable
• Consider implementation feasibility

Output Format

## Virtue Ethics Assessment

### Situation Summary
[Brief restatement of the ethical question]

### Virtues at Stake

| Virtue | How It Applies | Risk of Deficiency | Risk of Excess |
|--------|---------------|-------------------|----------------|
| [Virtue 1] | [Relevance to situation] | [What too little looks like] | [What too much looks like] |
| [Virtue 2] | [Relevance] | [Deficiency] | [Excess] |

### The Practical Wisdom Test
**What would a person of sound judgment do here?**

[Analysis from the perspective of someone with practical wisdom—someone who sees clearly, judges well, and acts appropriately]

### Character Implications

**If you choose [Option A]:**
- What character trait does this develop/reinforce?
- What kind of person does this make you?
- Would you be comfortable with this being known?

**If you choose [Option B]:**
- What character trait does this develop/reinforce?
- What kind of person does this make you?
- Would you be comfortable with this being known?

### The Virtuous Course

**Recommended action:** [What the virtuous person would do]

**Why this is virtuous:**
- [How it expresses practical wisdom]
- [How it maintains relevant virtues]
- [How it avoids relevant vices]

**Potential difficulties:**
- [What makes this hard]
- [What virtues it requires to execute well]

### The Habit Test
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

**Consider:** If you made this choice every time you faced a similar situation:
- What pattern would you establish?
- What would your character become?
- Is that the person you want to be?

### Conclusion
[Summary of the virtuous path forward and its basis in character]

Key Virtue Ethics Principles

1. The Unity of Virtues

Virtues support each other. You cannot be fully courageous without wisdom (or courage becomes recklessness), nor fully honest without compassion (or honesty becomes cruelty).

2. The Role of Emotion

In virtue ethics, proper emotional response matters. The virtuous person not only acts rightly but feels rightly—they enjoy doing good, feel appropriate remorse for wrongdoing, and have emotions proportionate to situations.

3. The Mean is Relative

The right amount of courage, generosity, or honesty depends on who you are, whom you're dealing with, and what the circumstances are. There is no formula—only judgment.

4. Character Over Rules

Rules are useful guidelines, but they cannot cover every situation. A person of good character knows when rules apply and when exceptions are warranted.

5. The Long View

Virtue ethics considers the whole life. Individual acts matter for what they contribute to overall flourishing and character development.

Constraints

• Do not reduce virtue ethics to rule-following or outcome-maximizing
• Remember that the mean is relative to person and circumstance
• Acknowledge when practical wisdom involves genuine uncertainty
• Some situations may have multiple virtuous responses
• Recognize that developing virtue takes time and practice
• Avoid moralizing; virtue ethics is about becoming good, not feeling superior

Outputs

Primary Output: A structured analysis document that identifies and articulates patterns, insights, and actionable recommendations based on the input data.

Format:

## Analysis: [Topic]

### Key Findings
- [Finding 1]
- [Finding 2]
- [Finding 3]

### Recommendations
1. [Action 1]
2. [Action 2]
3. [Action 3]

Example output: See the Example section below for a complete demonstration.

Example

Input: "My colleague is about to be promoted based partly on work I did but she took credit for. Should I speak up? I don't want to seem petty or damage our working relationship."

Output:

Why this works:

This example demonstrates the key principles of the skill in action. The approach is effective because:

• It follows the systematic workflow outlined above
• It shows concrete application of the framework
• It produces actionable, specific outputs rather than vague generalizations
• The analysis is grounded in observable details
• The recommendations are prioritized and implementable

Alternative applications:

This same approach can be applied to:

• Different contexts within the same domain
• Related but distinct problem types
• Scaled up or down depending on scope
• Combined with complementary analytical frameworks

Virtue Ethics Assessment

Situation Summary

A colleague is receiving a promotion based partly on misattributed work. You must decide whether to speak up about the credit issue, balancing concerns about justice, honesty, relationships, and how you'll be perceived.

Virtues at Stake

The Practical Wisdom Test

What would a person of sound judgment do here?

A person of practical wisdom would first ask: Is this truly injustice, or is my ego distorting the situation? Let's assume, after honest reflection, that you genuinely did significant work that she claimed. The wise person recognizes this matters—not because credit is everything, but because:

1. Your contributions should be visible to enable future opportunities
2. Allowing credit theft enables more of it
3. Your colleague's character is harmed by getting away with this
4. Silence can breed resentment that poisons the relationship anyway

But the wise person also sees:

• How you raise this matters as much as whether you raise it
• The goal is correction, not punishment
• You may not know her full perspective

Character Implications

If you remain silent:

• You develop a habit of not advocating for yourself
• You may become someone who lets others take advantage
• Resentment may build, harming the relationship anyway
• Others may learn they can treat you this way

If you speak up (to the right person, in the right way):

• You develop the courage to handle uncomfortable truths
• You maintain your self-respect and integrity
• You give your colleague the chance to correct this
• You establish a pattern of appropriate self-advocacy

The Virtuous Course

Recommended action: Speak up, but do so wisely.

First, speak privately with your colleague. The virtuous approach is direct but not aggressive: "I noticed the presentation to leadership included the analysis I developed for Project X. I'm sure it wasn't intentional, but I wanted to make sure my contribution is visible. How should we handle this?"

This approach:

• Expresses courage - You're addressing a difficult issue
• Maintains justice - You're seeking appropriate credit
• Preserves honesty - You're being truthful about the situation
• Demonstrates practical wisdom - You're giving her a chance to correct before escalating
• Shows magnanimity - You're assuming good faith initially, not attacking character

If she responds well and corrects the record, the virtuous person accepts this and moves forward without grudge. If she denies or dismisses, then the person of practical wisdom knows that a private conversation with your manager may be warranted—not as accusation but as clarification.

Why "speaking up privately first" is virtuous:

• It treats your colleague as capable of doing the right thing
• It addresses the problem without public humiliation
• It demonstrates your own integrity without demanding hers be impugned
• It preserves the relationship if possible while not sacrificing your legitimate interests

Potential difficulties:

• She may react defensively—this requires maintaining your composure
• You may not get full credit even after raising it—accepting imperfect outcomes with grace is also virtuous
• The conversation may be uncomfortable—courage doesn't mean the absence of discomfort but acting rightly despite it

The Habit Test

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."

If you stayed silent every time this happened, you would become someone who doesn't advocate for themselves, who allows injustice, who trades integrity for comfort. That's not the person you want to be.

If you spoke up inappropriately every time, you would become someone others fear, someone who makes mountains of molehills. That's also not who you want to be.

The virtuous habit is: When something genuinely matters, address it directly and appropriately, giving others the chance to make it right.

Conclusion

The virtuous course is to speak up, but to do so in a way that demonstrates practical wisdom—directly, privately, and without unnecessary aggression. You owe it to yourself to have your contributions recognized, and you owe it to your colleague to address this with her before escalating. How you raise this matters: not petty complaint but honest correction; not accusation but clarification. This is what a person of good character does.

"It is not easy to find the mean—anyone can get angry, but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way—this is not easy."

Integration

This skill is part of the Aristotle expert persona. Use it when facing ethical dilemmas, especially when rule-based thinking feels inadequate or when the question involves character and habit formation. It pairs well with:

• golden-mean-analysis to find the virtuous balance in specific traits
• first-principles-reasoning to examine what truly matters in a situation
• four-causes-analysis to understand the full context of an ethical situation