Though Adams seems to disagree with the modular theory of virtue on the basis of human imperfection, I find myself partial to the idea. I agree with Adams that it's basically impossible that the pinnacle of a virtue can ever be achieved by a person, simply on the basis that he or she is only human. But I do not believe we should define what a virtue is using the consideration that one will sometimes (or often) fail to achieve the ideal. Exams are graded with a perfect score as a possibility; their being graded is not adjusted to allow room for human error (unfortunately). Similarly I believe that virtue should be defined and evaluated on an absolute scale. (I should mention, however, that I found the "60% of the time/10% overall" figures Adams provided to be rather arbitrary. Some more justification for the numbers he gave would have really been appreciated instead of implying that a 60% frequency was the magic threshold value for being virtuous.)
This is not to say I believe that someone is virtuous only if they adhere to virtue 100% of the time; exams are often curved, after all. I agree with Adams in saying that a person is proportionately virtuous to the extent that they practice that virtue, but overall I agree with the modality method of virtue when it comes to defining what a virtue actually is, because to incorporate human failures to be virtuous would skew our definition of what a virtue is. We cannot let our own failures and viewpoints distort the definition of something objective, which is what I consider virtue to be.
1 comment:
i belive that what adams would respond to this is that "being for the good" means that so long as you dedicate yourself to the persuit of good and the persuit of perfect virtue then it is possible to be "perfect". rather than defining perfecting as a series of actions which lack even the smallest flaw, it would instead be an attitude towards creating good and not allowing viciousness to provoke any action.
By this logic perfection would instead be a direction that one would head in rather than the highest possible standard. It seems to speak to Adams' intention of his virtue that life is meant to be lead in the direction of good as opposed to perfection which would mean that a persons actions are entirely predetermined by his or her surroundings.
Post a Comment