---
title: "Virtue ethics · Library · Simulation Hypothesis"
url: https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/virtue-ethics
description: "Virtue ethics is the tradition, going back to Aristotle, that judges actions by what they say about a person’s character and whether they help a person flourish."
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
credit: "Ross Allan Dahl, Simulation Hypothesis (simulation-hypothesis.com)"
---

## Ethics & metaphysics

# Virtue ethics

Definition

Virtue ethics is the tradition, going back to Aristotle, that judges actions by what they say about a person’s character and whether they help a person flourish. It cares less about rules or outcomes.

On this site

The Virtue column peaks at As found, on the view that character needs something to push against.

Role in the model

The Virtue column peaks at As found suffering and real freedom, and drops off in both directions. A world with no hardship gives people no chance to build character. A world with nothing but hardship doesn’t either.

Related

[The experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/experience-machine)[Free will](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/library/free-will)

In the trees

[Virtue is a habit · Ethics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/ethics?n=a-aristotle)[Choose who you are · Ethics](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/trees/ethics?n=x-virtue-back)

## The people behind the terms

14 short pages, one per thinker, each with its matching dial. See also the [reading list](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/reading).

[Plato’s cave](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/plato)[Zhuangzi’s butterfly](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/zhuangzi)[Vasubandhu’s dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/vasubandhu)[Shankara’s māyā](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/shankara)[al-Ghazali’s doubt](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ghazali)[Ibn Arabi’s imagination](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/ibn-arabi)[Calderón’s life is a dream](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/calderon)[Descartes’ demon](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/descartes)[Berkeley’s perceiver](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/berkeley)[Borges’ circular ruins](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/borges)[Nozick’s experience machine](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/nozick)[Putnam’s brain in a vat](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/putnam)[Bostrom’s trilemma](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/bostrom)[Chalmers: virtual worlds are real](https://simulation-hypothesis.com/thinkers/chalmers)