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Virtue is the supreme good. — Carmelics

Home/Virtue Ethics

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Virtue is the supreme good.

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1 reason for

2 reasons against

Reasons For

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Reason for

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1.Virtue is the only good, among all those we can possess, which depends entirely on our free will.
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2.Virtue is sufficient for happiness.
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Reasons Against

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Reason against 1 of 2

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1.External goods such as health, friendship, and adequate material resources are necessary conditions for the exercise of virtue itself.
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2.A good that cannot be realized without prior conditions it does not guarantee cannot be the supreme or self-sufficient good.
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3.Therefore virtue, dependent on conditions outside the will, fails the criteria of supremacy it claims.
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Reason against 2 of 2

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1.Aristotle's eudaimonia requires not virtue alone but virtue in action across a complete life, including favorable external circumstances.
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2.A person of perfect virtue who suffers extreme misfortune—loss of children, health, or community—cannot be called fully flourishing.
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3.The Stoic-Cartesian identification of virtue with supreme good conflates the highest internal good with the highest good simpliciter.
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A good that cannot be realized without prior conditions it does not guarantee ca...A person of perfect virtue who suffers extreme misfortune—loss of children, heal...Aristotle's eudaimonia requires not virtue alone but virtue in action across a c...External goods such as health, friendship, and adequate material resources are n...

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The Stoic-Cartesian identification of virtue with supreme good conflates the hig...Therefore virtue, dependent on conditions outside the will, fails the criteria o...Virtue is sufficient for happiness.Virtue is the only good, among all those we can possess, which depends entirely ...

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SEP: descartes-ethics

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Basic to Descartes’ account is the distinction he draws between (i) the supreme good, (ii) happiness, and (iii) the final end or goal, notions generally taken as equivalent in ancient eudaimonism (AT IV 275/CSMK 261). Descartes identifies the supreme good with virtue, which he defines as “a firm and constant will to bring about everything we judge to be the best and to employ all the force of our intellect in judging well” (AT IV 277/CSMK 262). Virtue is the supreme good, he argues, because it i

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Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

Details

Type: claim
Perspectives: 3 (1 for, 2 against)
Edits: 1 edit