← See the axis · Criterion of right action

But what exactly should I do?

'Act as the virtuous person would': but who is she, if not the one who acts well? The criterion goes in a circle and never says what to do.

Objects to Virtue ethics

1. Virtue ethics offers this rule: do what the virtuous person would do. But who is this person? The one who does what ought to be done.
2. The criterion goes in a circle: it defines the right action by the virtuous agent, and the virtuous agent by the right action, without ever saying, in the concrete case, what ought to be done.
3. And when equally admirable people judge in opposite ways, whether to lie to save a friend, to fight or to yield, the appeal to character stays silent, where a rule or a calculation do give an answer.

Therefore So virtue ethics may describe the good agent, but it does not guide action: it lacks the criterion that duty or consequences provide.