| IN this essay we examine the growing phenomenon of virtue ethics, first in its own resurgence, then as it has entered swiftly into Christian ethics, and finally as it affords Western scholars an entry into Confucianism. We conclude with a warning.
Virtue Ethics
During the past few decades, virtue ethics has become a prominent alternative to principle-based ethics. Principle-based ethics is an ethics that tells us first what to do or how to act; it prohibits certain actions and prescribes others. Principle-based ethics is therefore an action oriented ethics. Virtue ethics deals primarily with individuals and moral communities, before dealing with their actions. Virtue ethics deals with being before action, following the ancient insight that action follows from being. In short, virtue makes, as Aristotle taught, persons good and causes them to act well. (1)
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Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As I begin my address to this Assembly, I would like first of all to express to you, Mr President, my sincere gratitude for your kind words. My thanks go also to the Secretary-General, Mr Ban Ki-moon, for inviting me to visit the headquarters of this Organisation and for the welcome that he has extended to me. I greet the Ambassadors and Diplomats from the Member States, and all those present. Through you, I greet the peoples who are represented here. They look to this institution to carry forward the founding inspiration to establish a "centre for harmonizing the actions of nations in the attainment of these common ends" of peace and development (cf. Charter of the United Nations, article 1.2-1.4). As Pope John Paul II expressed it in 1995, the Organisation should be “a moral centre where all the nations of the world feel at home and develop a shared awareness of being...
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