Tracing the path of one's vice

TRACING THE PATH OF ONE’S VICE

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            Virtue ethics is one of the braches of ethics. Ethics is such a broad field of study that there are so many branches of study that come under it. If I were to sum up the whole understanding of virtue ethics in just one word, it would be “Habits.” The basic stance of this is that a person becomes good by doing what is good and right. It is like a person learning a particular skill like playing football or the guitar. He or she becomes a master at it by practice.


          Now while virtue ethics claims that a person becomes good by a repeated set of activities or habits as some would call it, over a period of time, the same could be said of vices. No person is insane; no one is a born sinner. It is just that sometimes we make the wrong choices in certain areas and when done repeatedly, it becomes a habit and that slowly develops into a vice. There are so many examples that can be given in this regard like smoking, drinking, engaging in indecent conversation, watching pornography and so on. Hence what is needed to overcome one’s vices is to trace those patterns that lead one to do those things that he or she is not supposed to do and deal with it from there. It is like trying to uproot grass from its roots. When the grass is pulled out by the roots, then, the cure is permanent or will at least last for a considerable long time. Otherwise what happens is that when the grass is pulled out only from the top, then its growth stops only for a short while. The same can be said about ourselves especially our vices or bad habits. 

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