Aristotle’s virtue ethics as a conceptual framework for the study and practice of social work in modern times

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to highlight the importance of Aristotle’s model of virtue ethics for today’s social workers and students, as it can help them to build an ethical character and promote ethical conduct in both their personal and professional lives. In doing so, the paper first provides an overview of virtue ethics theory and its revival over the last decades in western societies and then, discusses the basic tenets of Aristotle’s ethics theory in relation to the social work profession. In addition, the main types of Aristotelian virtues are presented including cardinal virtues (courage, justice, practical wisdom/phronesis, temperance) and the concepts of eudaimonia and golden mean in relation to their applications in social work practice are described. The paper briefly explains cardinal virtues and provides a case example of moral courage that will help social workers and students to better understand the concept of Aristotle’s golden mean. Finally, it discusses and responds to the main criticisms of Aristotle’s virtue ethics, considering alternative ways to discuss and think about this approach to social work.     

Grounding Twenty-first-Century Public Relations Praxis in Aristotelian Ethos

ABSTRACT

By grounding public relations praxis in Aristotelian ethos, practitioners can function as liaison officers with balanced perspectives, capable of co-creating meaning with both client organizations and their publics between whom experts are hired to facilitate mutually beneficial relationships. This approach locates persuasion at the nexus of speaker ethos in the public relations process. It allows practitioners to balance their commitment to the ethics of their profession with loyalty to clients, while empowering audiences (organizations and their publics) to function as the final arbiters of any courses of action proposed to them. Moreover, because the approach enables practitioners, based on their credible ethos, to participate in organizational decision-making, it has the potential to transfer their ethical worldview to client organizations. Ultimately, the central theoretical contribution of this essay is an alternative approach to public relations praxis founded on an analysis of Aristotle’s notion of phronesis, arête, and eunoia.     

Quadriplegia,virtue theory,and flourishing: a qualitative study drawing on self-narratives

Grounded in the logic of the virtue tradition, the qualitative study “the good life and quadriplegia” collected the self-narratives of people that have lived with the impairment over the medium to long term. This article draws on those narratives to describe how people understood the good life in the context of the losses and hardship of their spinal-cord injury, and the virtues and attitudes that helped them to achieve it. While highlighting the importance of virtue, participant stories resisted the ideology of the positivity myth, recognising that flourishing includes hardships, limitation, and failure, as well as meaning, virtue, and accomplishment.     

试析亚里士多德的幸福之意蕴

在亚里士多德的眼中,幸福是人生的终极目的,是人之功能的最大实现;幸福本身即是完满的、自足的、固有的、本己的,且难于被剥夺的。亚里士多德认为幸福的本质在于德性,而有德的实践活动是通达幸福之途。围绕着幸福,亚里士多德着重论述了它与善、最高善、外在善、德性、思辩、中道、快乐等的相互关联与有机作用。虽然,在某种程度上,亚里士多德的幸福过于理想化,过于“圣化”,过分被渲染成难以达至,有了些许“阳春白雪”的味道;但对于我们而言,其仍不失为一种积极的、客观的且有益的人生感悟与幸福感言,是可以触及的。