HOW SHOULD ONE LIVE?

What do we think is important about human beings?

That they are immortal souls……………………Christian & Muslim ethics

That they flourish and thrive in good communities ….Aristotelean ethics

That they are happy………………………………….utilitarian ethics

That they are rational agents with plans……………….Kantian ethics


Does one's personal ethics depend on the kind of imperative as the utilitarian (maximize well-being) and the Kantian (achieve the fulfillment of acting as a reasoning creature) schemes or that derived from the virtue ethics proposed by Aristotle in his Nicomachean Ethics where one is encouraged to act with partiality towards oneself and ones friends in a way that is congruous with our common sense of ethical behavior.

Do virtue ethics create the same kind of imperative as the utilitarian (maximize well-being) and Kantian (achieve the fulfillment of acting as a reasoning creature) schemes?

for background the following citations

Virtue ethics.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/v/virtue.htm

http://ethics.sandiego.edu/theories/Aristotle/

http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/readings/wphil_rdg09_nichomacheanethics_entire.htm


Kantian ethics

http://philosophy.lander.edu/ethics/kant.html

http://ethics.acusd.edu/theories/kant/

http://www-phil.tamu.edu/~gary/bioethics/ethicaltheory/kant.html

Problems with Utilitarian and Kantian Ethics.
http://www.coursework.info/i/276.html


Utilitarian ethics

http://jeromekahn123.tripod.com/utilitarianismtheethicaltheoryforalltimes/id15.html

http://jeromekahn123.tripod.com/utilitarianismtheethicaltheoryforalltimes/id13.html

have at it.

and a shout out to Fresco, who i hope drops by, because i have just begun reading "Prehistory of the mind: the cognitive origins of art, religion, and science" by steven mithen.... and it appears an easier read than Gurdjieff.