The Role Of Generosity In Nicomachean Ethics

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Aristotle’s discussion of generosity is quite simple, yet interesting to read about. In Nicomachean Ethics he describes generosity as the mean of wealth where wastefulness and selfishness are the excess and deficiency of the mean. Aristotle argues that generosity can involve giving money to people who need it or refusing money from those who cannot afford to give it. This means that virtuous generosity involves giving or refusing money in the right way, to or from the right people, at the right time, and in the right amount. He says that a man who exhibits generosity in a virtuous way will do so pleasurably; or at the very least painlessly because virtues are meant to be pleasurable. According to Aristotle, wastefulness and “ungenerosity”

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