This is more a tangent than a direct response—I think I fundamentally agree with almost everything you wrote—but I dont think virtue ethics requires tossing out the other two (although I agree both of the others require tossing out each other).
I view virtue ethics as saying, roughly, “the actually important thing almost always is not how you act in contrived edge case thought experiments, but rather how how habitually act in day to day circumstances. Thus you should worry less, probably much much less, about said thought experiments, and worry more about virtuous behavior in all the circumstances where deontology and utilitarianism have no major conflicts”. I take it as making a claim about correct use of time and thought-energy, rather than about perfectly correct morality. It thus can extend to ”...and we think (D/U) ethics are ultimately best served this way, and please use (D/U) ethics if one of those corner cases ever shows up” for either deontology or (several versions of) utilitarianism, basically smoothly.
I think virtue ethics is a practical solution, but if you just say “if corner cases show up, don’t follow it” means you’re doing something else other than being a virtue ethicist.
This is more a tangent than a direct response—I think I fundamentally agree with almost everything you wrote—but I dont think virtue ethics requires tossing out the other two (although I agree both of the others require tossing out each other).
I view virtue ethics as saying, roughly, “the actually important thing almost always is not how you act in contrived edge case thought experiments, but rather how how habitually act in day to day circumstances. Thus you should worry less, probably much much less, about said thought experiments, and worry more about virtuous behavior in all the circumstances where deontology and utilitarianism have no major conflicts”. I take it as making a claim about correct use of time and thought-energy, rather than about perfectly correct morality. It thus can extend to ”...and we think (D/U) ethics are ultimately best served this way, and please use (D/U) ethics if one of those corner cases ever shows up” for either deontology or (several versions of) utilitarianism, basically smoothly.
I think virtue ethics is a practical solution, but if you just say “if corner cases show up, don’t follow it” means you’re doing something else other than being a virtue ethicist.