In the Ancient Greek world (the world of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, often regarded as the birthplace of philosophy) a “symposium” was a banquet held after a meal, an “after party” of sorts that usually included drinking, dancing, recitals and engaging conversations on the topics of the day.

For our purposes in this course, the Symposium discussions will not involve dancing, recitals or a banquet, but they will provide food for thought on current ethical issues and direct application of the ethical theory discussed in each of these weeks.

It is almost impossible these days to turn on the news or log onto social media without encountering a controversy that cries out for ethical discussion. For these Symposium discussions, your instructor will choose a topic of current ethical interest and a resource associated with it for you to read or watch. Your task is to consider how the ethical theory of the week might be used to examine, understand or evaluate the issue.

This week, you will consider how virtue ethics applies to a controversy, dilemma, event, or scenario selected by your instructor. It is a chance for you to discuss together the ethical issues and questions that it raises, your own response to those, and whether that aligns with or does not align with a virtue ethics approach. The aim is not to simply assert your own view or to denigrate other views, but to identify, evaluate, and discuss the moral reasoning involved in addressing the chosen issue.

Your posts should remain focused on the ethical considerations, and at some point in your contribution you must specifically address the way a virtue ethicist would approach this issue by explaining and evaluating that approach.

If you have a position, you should strive to provide reasons in defense of that position.

** For this final Symposium Discussion, please read the article at the bottom of this post by David Brooks entitled “How would Jesus drive?” Click this Link (Links to an external site.) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/opinion/how-would-jesus-drive.html

Note that despite its title, this article isn’t primarily about Jesus or religion, but about the relation between everyday habits and choices (like those that affect the way one drives) and broader virtues, values, ideas about what is good and worthwhile, etc., which can apply to many areas of life, including personal ethical beliefs on divisive social issues.

In your initial post:

1. Briefly summarize the article then answer the following questions:
2. Do Brook’s views confirm Aristotle’s claim that virtues manifest themselves across one’s life as a whole?
3. To what extent do you think views about the aim of a good and worthwhile life find their way into everyday attitudes and behavior?

should be at least 500 words!