Ethics in religion

Why do some people value character over outcomes?

Imagine you're deciding whether to return a lost wallet. You could keep it, but you know the owner would be upset.

Virtue ethics focuses on being a good person, like deciding to return the wallet because honesty is a virtue you value. The technical term is "virtue ethics."

Example

You find a wallet and choose to return it because honesty is important to you.

Remember this

Virtue ethics teaches us to act according to good character traits, not just by thinking about the consequences.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Related concepts

Virtue ethics

Virtue ethics emphasizes character traits over rules

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Can ethics be more than just rules?

Immanuel Kant

Kant separates duty from inclination to determine moral worth

Moral responsibility

Moral luck challenges moral responsibility

Moral development

Is fairness always about equal outcomes?

Emmanuel Levinas

Levinas argues that ethics precedes knowledge

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