I'm reading Friendship and virtue ethics in the Book of Job by Particia Vesely and it has quite a large introduction to virtue ethics, mostly based on Artistotle. Of course I've heard the phrase before, but I haven't done any reading about it (other than Wikipedia), but I really should! This system seems extremely similar to the instruction of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic where the elements of harmony (represented first by physical artifacts and then, more abstractly, by the main cast of the show) seem to be the guide for proper living and behavior.
Sorry if I'm oversimplifying something or even misrepresenting: as I've said, I've only read an introduction in that book and Wikipedia. Anyway, here's a quick rundown. Virtue ethics is all about virtues (duh) which are basically characters traits or habits. Instead of following a set of rules (deontology) or acting based on the predicted outcome (consequentialism), you should develop virtues or habits which will enable you to make proper choices instinctively. The focal point of virtue ethics seems to be that human experience is too complex to be reduced to some algorithm that could determine proper behavior.
For example if you're managing a company (let's assume it's a small company where you have to manage everything yourself instead of hiring people to do it for you) and want to keep it orderly, the preferable manner would be to develop a virtue of organization/tidiness instead of just reading Company Management 101 and applying the rules (which would probably not be exhaustive and sooner or later you'd run into unexpected behavior). How do you develop such virtue? You start as a child, you clean up your toys, you tidy your room, then you manage your homework, studying, later you organize projects etc. This way tidiness becomes your second nature and you don't even have to think about applying it to other endeavors (of course, using manuals is not wrong, but virtues are basically skills -- you need to get good at them with practice, not just have an illuminating experience and immediately apply a rule set).
As I've already suggested, virtues aren't only about ethical behavior. Virtues enable you to do things properly. Aristotle argues there are virtues (I'd call them metavirtues as they're collections of smaller virtues) applying to different species (and social classes) which enable them to become good at being human, being a horse, being a husband, being a citizen etc.
These (meta)virtues don't include only internal factors, they also include external factors, things outside of our control. Friendship and human interaction in general are part of the virtue of a human. It's necessary for being good at being human, just as good health is necessary for enjoying your human experience.
Why are these virtues important? What does the term personality boils down to? I'd say that personality is just a collection of habits or, in context of this system, virtues. Improving your personality is basically cultivating virtues (I'd say positive virtues but it's probably tautology; virtues include only positive habits, I think). I'm stressing the word cultivating.
Now, the common incel experience is exclusion. I've tried to make friends many times only to get excluded, people straight-up refuse to meet with me or talk to me. We're not even given a chance. As I've mentioned before, virtues can't be learned from a book, you can't just follow an algorithm to get better at being a good friend (I'm being very generous here, we don't even get a proper set of rules, at best we get very vague and often contradictory tips). How are we supposed to improve our personality then?
Normies get angry at nice guys or neckbeards being awkward, but what do they expect? You can't simply learn social interaction from a book, you actually have to experience it and there's nowhere to train friendship. That's literally the point of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (well, at least the early seasons): to get good at friendship, you make friends and slowly, through experiences, get good at it, you don't just read a book about it and try to apply it in real life to get humiliated. Twilight Sparkle has the advantage that she lives in a magical world of friendly ponies: when she arrives in Ponyville, there's already a bunch of ponies ready to befriend her and they're very tolerant of her ineptitude. In real life? You read about the magic of friendship, go out, approach someone, get called a creep and posted on some subreddit making fun of CRINGE EVIL STINKY NECKBEARDS.
I used to think that therapy would give me a chance to practice friendship, but my own experience was a giant disappointment. Friendship is all about empathy, but for me therapy was indulging in narcissistic analysis detached from the concept of me as a member of the society. How am I supposed to train if I'm denied a chance to? They want us to improve our personality, but I genuinely don't see how we are supposed to do it.
Sorry if I'm oversimplifying something or even misrepresenting: as I've said, I've only read an introduction in that book and Wikipedia. Anyway, here's a quick rundown. Virtue ethics is all about virtues (duh) which are basically characters traits or habits. Instead of following a set of rules (deontology) or acting based on the predicted outcome (consequentialism), you should develop virtues or habits which will enable you to make proper choices instinctively. The focal point of virtue ethics seems to be that human experience is too complex to be reduced to some algorithm that could determine proper behavior.
For example if you're managing a company (let's assume it's a small company where you have to manage everything yourself instead of hiring people to do it for you) and want to keep it orderly, the preferable manner would be to develop a virtue of organization/tidiness instead of just reading Company Management 101 and applying the rules (which would probably not be exhaustive and sooner or later you'd run into unexpected behavior). How do you develop such virtue? You start as a child, you clean up your toys, you tidy your room, then you manage your homework, studying, later you organize projects etc. This way tidiness becomes your second nature and you don't even have to think about applying it to other endeavors (of course, using manuals is not wrong, but virtues are basically skills -- you need to get good at them with practice, not just have an illuminating experience and immediately apply a rule set).
As I've already suggested, virtues aren't only about ethical behavior. Virtues enable you to do things properly. Aristotle argues there are virtues (I'd call them metavirtues as they're collections of smaller virtues) applying to different species (and social classes) which enable them to become good at being human, being a horse, being a husband, being a citizen etc.
Aristotle said:
These (meta)virtues don't include only internal factors, they also include external factors, things outside of our control. Friendship and human interaction in general are part of the virtue of a human. It's necessary for being good at being human, just as good health is necessary for enjoying your human experience.
Particia Vesely said:
Why are these virtues important? What does the term personality boils down to? I'd say that personality is just a collection of habits or, in context of this system, virtues. Improving your personality is basically cultivating virtues (I'd say positive virtues but it's probably tautology; virtues include only positive habits, I think). I'm stressing the word cultivating.
Now, the common incel experience is exclusion. I've tried to make friends many times only to get excluded, people straight-up refuse to meet with me or talk to me. We're not even given a chance. As I've mentioned before, virtues can't be learned from a book, you can't just follow an algorithm to get better at being a good friend (I'm being very generous here, we don't even get a proper set of rules, at best we get very vague and often contradictory tips). How are we supposed to improve our personality then?
Normies get angry at nice guys or neckbeards being awkward, but what do they expect? You can't simply learn social interaction from a book, you actually have to experience it and there's nowhere to train friendship. That's literally the point of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (well, at least the early seasons): to get good at friendship, you make friends and slowly, through experiences, get good at it, you don't just read a book about it and try to apply it in real life to get humiliated. Twilight Sparkle has the advantage that she lives in a magical world of friendly ponies: when she arrives in Ponyville, there's already a bunch of ponies ready to befriend her and they're very tolerant of her ineptitude. In real life? You read about the magic of friendship, go out, approach someone, get called a creep and posted on some subreddit making fun of CRINGE EVIL STINKY NECKBEARDS.
I used to think that therapy would give me a chance to practice friendship, but my own experience was a giant disappointment. Friendship is all about empathy, but for me therapy was indulging in narcissistic analysis detached from the concept of me as a member of the society. How am I supposed to train if I'm denied a chance to? They want us to improve our personality, but I genuinely don't see how we are supposed to do it.
