Virtue Ethics and Moral Character Related to Medical Profession

Abstract

Although moral values are universal, their application varies in different cultures. In this study we are inclined to choose the following: (1) Moral values are the result of habitual adherence to them. They become second nature as a consequence of habitually doing what one considers is right. This is what Aristotle maintained in his famous Nicomachian Ethics [1]. According to him all moral values and characters can be changed. Some Muslim writers on ethics accept such view (with some alterations). Tahanooni in his Kashaf Istilahat alFanoon wa alOloom "the lexicon of the terminologies of Arts and Sciences" says that morality "Khulq" is a habituation and nature, which is affected and directed by religion [2]. (2) Others say morality is innate and emanates from within the self, and cannot be changed (except with great effort) (al-Jurjani [3], Miskawayh (Tahzib Al-aKhalaq). (3) Galen [4] combined the innate nature and temperaments, e.g., sanguineous temperament, which usually appears at young age and youth, but those of sanguineous temperament continue until their old age. All dictators, conquerors , and despots from Nimrod, Pharoes till Hitler, and Stalin have had this bloody temperament. Others have bilious temperament, some have melancholy , and at old age usually the temperament is phlegmatic. The theory of humors, which he proclaimed, controls the temperament and affects the character. These humors are four: the blood, the bile from the gall bladder, the black bile from the spleen, and the phlegm from the brain and lungs. The theory is obsolete, and instead of these four humors, the new sciences replace them with hormones, genes, and myriads of smaller factors from within the body and from outside the body, i.e., environment, which displays the effect of nature and nurture on our characters and morality. (4) Al-Mawardi [5] divided the origin of morality into two main branches: (a) The innate ones, which are part of our nature, which may be good or bad, and is controlled by instincts and humors (of Galen) (b) The voluntary character, which emanates from the training and using our faculties. It is of course influenced by one's education and community.