Virtue Ethics originated from ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle. Discussed in his book, ‘Nicomachean Ethics’ it is founded on the ideal of ‘Arête’ or ‘excellence.’ Aristotle believed that to achieve Arête and Eudaimonia (human flourishing) within a polis (society) an individual must develop a series of virtues. These are closely linked with issues surrounding sex and relationships. Focusing on the individual, Virtue Ethics is labelled an ‘agent-centred’ approach, this avoids fixating on actions and outcomes, and rather focuses on asking the question of ‘what sort of person should I become?’ Within this essay, I will evaluate the usefulness of Virtue Ethics as an approach to issues encompassed in sex and relationships.

Aristotle believed that the final end of human activity is to achieve human flourishing or ‘Eudaimonia’ and the only way to achieve this is through developing virtues. Aristotle built upon Plato’s cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, temperance and courage) and made a clear distinction between intellectual and moral virtues. Intellectual virtues include the likes of resourcefulness and understanding., these can only be attained through training and solid practice. This is a strength of virtue ethics as being able to solve problems and knowing the best way to do this is useful. For example, using contraception is arguably in line with these virtues, as you would know the best course of action, and thus make sure you use it to avoid unwanted pregnancy. This is a useful position as its far more adaptable and relative than say, Natural Law, which deems contraception as breaking the divine law of the hierarchy of moral code. Within Genesis 38:1-10 Yahweh smited Onan for spilling semen and therefore is most indefinitely opposed to contraception. These Moral Virtues include courage, liberality and proper ambition. The strong, objective foundation these possess is very useful when utilising virtue ethics, as it makes it concise and undebatable. However, the issue lies when you speculate on the definitions of the virtues in question. In 2014, UN Human rights chief, Navi Pillay was tackling anti-gay laws In Nigeria, which meant that you couldn’t provide services to anyone ‘perceived’ to be homosexual. By fighting against this law that he described as ‘draconian’ he displays courage, fighting against a corrupt government, liberality by being concerned about equality of homosexuals and proper ambition through his dedication against all odds. This makes virtue ethics a useful approach to sex and relationships, because unlike Kantian Ethics, which would apply the first formulation of the categorical imperative and discourage homosexuality as it cannot be universalised, it focuses on developing virtues through habit, as displayed by Navi, and allows for a much more modern approach.