Study On Foot’s Naturalistic Virtue Ethics

In the1950s, virtue theory started to become popular in the United States and England and other countries. Philipa Foot is one of the well known philosophers in this field. After studying Aristotle’s virtue theory, she intends to discover a unique virtue standard. She changes people’s perspective toward practical virtues by criticizing the down side of un-cognitive theory which answered the question about what natural practices will be beneficial to human beings. In addition, she also presented a detailed explanation about her own understanding of the practical virtues. She thinks this explanation do not require judges on good and bad virtues by examining people’s acts and characteristics. Foot believes that virtue standards of other species can be considered in our virtues judgements. This article is based on Foot’s writing "Natural Kindness". This article mainly focused on analyzing and discussing Foot’s Natural virtue theory’s background, basic contents, and the in-depth meaning.In part one, the passage explains the backgrounds of Foot’s theory. It also provides virtue theory’s development history and how Foot established her own idea.Part two provides detailed explanation about Foot’s natural virtue theory. This is an essential portion of the passage. The author first discusses Foot’s understanding toward Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas’s virtue theory and some backgrounds. Later, the writing primarily explains Foot’s ideas about virtues and will by differentiate virtues from other characteristics. Also, virtues are different from arts and skills are due to will. The article also states that courage and temperance are corrective. Lastly, the write quotes Foot’s perspective about practical virtues "virtue actions is a part of practical virtues" to present the relationship between practical virtues and actions or virtues standards.Part three discusses Foot’s natural virtues theory’s meaning. This mainly states how she established a theory that is different from all other philosophers. This will be constructive for us to correct our actions and behaviors which will lead to a happier life and more peaceful world.