Star Wars and Virtue Ethics

When Luke Skywalker crash-landed in the Degoba system after successfully escaping Hoth, he stumbled upon a unique creature. This creature, short and green, speaks with Luke about the great Jedi master Yoda. Luke learns that, despite the creature's appearance, he is actually speaking to Yoda. Yoda says to Luke, “This one a long time have I have watched. All his life, has he looked away to the future. To the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. What he was doing.” A virtue ethicist, a long time before and in a galaxy far away from that of Aristotle, Yoda knew that “the good” rests in the agent. He believed that any action should and will be governed by virtue, or in his realm the “Force.” For Yoda, the best moral guide appears in his advice to Skywalker, “Do or do not, there is no try.”  An action may be deemed “right” by the theory that its consequence determines its morality. An act, however, cannot be considered “good” unless it rests within the state of the agent; an agent who keeps his mind on where is is and what he is doing, and away from the horizon ahead of him. Luke eventually learned that, and saved the empire while he was at it...