Abstract:

Virtuous ethics and normative ethics focus on different theoretical themes. From a perspective of virtue ethics, the most basic question is: What kind of person should I be? And the fundamental subject matter of normative ethics is: What ought I to do and how ought I to do? The virtue theory, whose representatives are Confucianism and Aristotle's ethics, essentially revolves around a person's moral character, making an evaluation of the whole person. The normative theory, whose representatives are utilitarianism and Kant's deontology, concerns with the moral nature of action, making an evaluation of the special action. The moral evaluation system of traditional society is virtue ethics and that of modern society is normative ethics. The significance of transition from virtue ethics to normative ethics is to admit that each person has the right of self - decision and confines those universal norms to the public social area. But the normative theory only looks to the kinds of actions an agent ought to perform, ignoring the kind of person an agent ought to be.

Key words: virtue ethics, normative ethics, moral evaluation system, moral character, moral action