The contradiction problem is a threat to virtue ethics because

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To assess the question, we first restate what the contradiction problem in virtue ethics concerns: how can there be a coherent account of virtue if virtuous agents might respond differently in the same circumstance?
Option 1: 'people disagree about who is virtuous and who isn’t.' While disagreements about who is virtuous can occur, this is more about epistemic or normative debates in virtue theory rather than the core of the contradiction problem itself. It does not capture the issue of variability in action among those deemed virtuous.
Option 2: 'vicious people sometimes act virtuously.' This statement reflects potential complexities in character or situational morality, but it’s not the central contradiction problem for virtue ethics. The problem asks about consistency among virtuous agents, not about the behavior of vicious individuals.
Option 3: 'different virtuous people might act differently in the same situation.' This choice targets the heart of the contradiction problem: if virtue is a stable character trait, one would expect similar virtuous agents to respond similarly in identical circumstances; divergence undercuts the idea of a single, coherent standard of virtue. The tension lies in explaining why virtuous agents could produce different but still morally acceptable actions, challenging the claim that virtue yields uniform behavior.
Option 4: 'different virtues imply different duties.' This statement relates to deontological or virtue-theory tensions about which duties arise from different virtues, but it does not directly describe the contradiction problem about identical situational judgments among virtuous agents. It addresses a separate issue about the scope of duties rather than consistency of virtuous action.
Overall, option 3 directly articulates the contradiction problem by highlighting how virtuous agents may diverge in action in the same scenario, posing a challenge to the universality and predictability expected from virtue ethics.

The contradiction problem is a threat to virtue ethics because

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