gjm comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 7 - Less Wrong
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That must be the first time anyone has ever called Draco Malfoy a virtue ethicist. Probably the last, too.
Just because his values don't match yours doesn't mean that he's not ethical.
Whether for good or evil, evarybody in canon is a virtue ethicist. (Presumably because Rowling knows no other ethics.)
For the avoidance of doubt, I wasn't disagreeing that one could categorize Draco that way. I just thought the incongruity of it was striking.
(To me, canon!Voldemort doesn't seem like much of a virtue ethicist even in the relevantly expanded sense. More of a consequentialist.)
I had the same impression. I think it was Eliezer's-characaturization-of-canon!Voldemort that was the virtue ethicist. Voldemort harnessed, encouraged and exploited a form of virtue ethics in others to reinforce his own power. Tom Riddle was perhaps more of a virtue ethicist. As they say, power corrupts - it even corrupts away virtue systems that were fairly abominable to begin with.
I did upvote the grandparent despite this possible exception.
How so?