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Aristotle on pleasure and happiness
Aristotle's moral reasoning
Virtue As Happiness
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Aristotle says that we learn which acts are virtuous, choose virtuous acts for their own sake, and acquire virtuous habits by performing virtuous acts. According to Burnyeat, Aristotle thinks this works successfully because virtuous acts are pleasant. The learner’s virtuous choices and passions are positively reinforced. I argue that Burnyeat’s interpretation fails because virtuous acts are not typically pleasant for learners or, perhaps surprisingly, even for virtuous people. Instead, I maintain that according to Aristotle moral progress is motivated by different sorts of pain associated with vicious acts. I find a series of stages in Aristotle. First, the many come to choose virtuous acts for their own sake by internalizing punishment and becoming generous-minded. Second, motivated by shame, they gain knowledge of which acts are virtuous, becoming incontinent. Third, learners gain habits of virtuous action by regretting their vicious acts and thus become continent. Fourth, they gain habits of virtuous passions by regretting their vicious passions and become well-brought-up. Finally, they are fully virtuous by being taught why virtuous acts are virtuous.
We are inquiring not in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good ... (1103b27-28) (1)
I shall try to resolve an interesting and insufficiently explored tension between two well known strands of Aristotle's thought. On the one hand, Aristotle's main piece of advice for becoming virtuous is to perform virtuous acts. He says, "We become just by performing just acts, and temperate by performing temperate acts" (1105a18-19). On the other hand, Aristotle says that in order to perform virtuous acts virtuously "the agent also must be in a certain condition when he ...
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...er, the analogy fails. The assumption that virtuous acts are like games begs the question of whether habitual virtuous action enables people to enjoy virtuous acts. Activities are games (rather than drudgery) because mere acquisition of appropriate skills is all it takes for most people to find the activity pleasant. Thus, a taste for games comes naturally along with the acquisition of skills, and practice provides skills. However, virtuous acts are not like games in the crucial respect. The ability to perform virtuous acts does not, by itself, make these acts pleasant. Vicious or continent people, for example, are often able to perform virtuous acts that they do not enjoy. Making virtuous acts pleasant requires something over and above the skills provided by practice.
(8) N. Sherman, The Fabric of Character (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 185-190.
Dolph Briscoe was elected to the Texas State Legislature in 1949. He was also a strong proponent of building the state's farm-to-market roads. This was an important development for rural Texas. He left the legislature in 1957 where he devote more time to the family business. Quickly becoming one of the state's leading ranchers and president of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. Dolph Briscoe was active in the Democratic Party of Texas throughout the 1950s and the 1960s.
On the one hand, in order to endure the “pressure of existence,” qualities such as pity, patience, humility and compassion become commendable. In this sense, “slave morality is essentially a morality of utility,” as it promotes qualities that would comfort and placate those who are living in pain. In another sense however, these aforementioned qualities are revered because the people are afraid of one another. The nobles valued and maintained some of “the highest and strongest drives, [which can] drive the individual far above the average and the flats of the herd conscience, wreck the self-confidence of the community, its faith in itself, and it is as if its spine snapped.” Wishing to prevent any possible danger to the stability of the community, the virtues of the nobles, which elevate the individual over the community, are condemned as evil. Since everyone is in fear of each other, slave morality is used to ensure that no one tries to subjugate the
Virtue ethics is a moral theory that was first developed by Aristotle. It suggests that humans are able to train their characters to acquire and exhibit particular virtues. As the individual has trained themselves to develop these virtues, in any given situation they are able to know the right thing to do. If everybody in society is able to do the same and develop these virtues, then a perfect community has been reached. In this essay, I shall argue that Aristotelian virtue ethics is an unsuccessful moral theory. Firstly, I shall analyse Aristotelian virtue ethics. I shall then consider various objections to Aristotle’s theory and evaluate his position by examining possible responses to these criticisms. I shall then conclude, showing why Aristotelian virtue ethics is an unpractical and thus an unsuccessful moral theory in reality.
Snodgrass, J., & Sorajjakool, S. (2011). Spirituality in older adulthood: Existential meaning,productivity, and life events. Pastoral Psychology, 60, 85-94. doi: 10.1007/s11089-010-0282-y
On Virtue Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. http://www.oxfordscholarship.com. ———. "
Aging is a phenomena we are all familiar with, a trait characteristic of all humankind, in fact, of all living organisms. What are the effects of aging, especially those which go beyond the biological aspects and effect the social aspects of changing roles, seniority, and treatment of the aged? What was the original human condition before high-tech medical interventions redefined death and dying, before the industrial age changed the nature of the nuclear and extended family? Going back still farther, what can the behavior of chimpanzees tell us about the origins of our responses to the aging of those around us?
Gakuran, Michael. "Aristotle’s Moral Philosophy | Gakuranman • Adventure First." Gakuranman Adventure First RSS. N.p., 21 May 2008. Web.
Williams, R. H., & Wirths, C. G. (1965). Lives through the years: Styles of life and successful aging.
When taking steps to analyze and apply intervention strategies for falls, we must examine the factors that cause these occurrences. There are numerous reasons that falls occur, such as intrinsic and or extrinsic risk factors. Intrinsic risk factors for falls may be due to changes that are part of the normal aging process and acute or chronic conditions. According to Zheng, Pan and Hua et al. (2013), about 35-45 percent of individuals who are usually older than 65 years and other 50 percent of the elderly individuals report cases of fall every year. Extrinsic factors are those related to physical environment such as lack of grab bars, poor condition of floor surfaces, inadequate or improper use of assistive devices (Currie). Patient falls is not an easy thing to eliminate. With many clinical challenges, there’s no easy answer to the challenges posed by patient falls; howe...
...importance of virtue here is that, virtues are needed for living well; But in order to obtain
17, No. 3, p. 252-259. Urmson, J.O., (1988). Aristotle’s Ethics (Blackwell), ch.1. Wilkes, K.V., (1978). The Good Man and the Good for Man in Aristotle’s Ethics. Mind 87; repr.
Metrics for subjective well-being are important tools which aid governments in determining how best to shape public policies that maximise their citizens’ happiness. In this paper, I will detail Martha Nussbaum’s critique of the normative conception of subjective well-being as well as her proposed solutions, and then relate them to the idea of ‘libertarian paternalism’ offered by Richard H. Thaler and Cass Sunstein.
It is a good thing. For example, if a singer practices singing every day, they will become better at it and used to doing it. People who practice their virtues improve their skills and therefore become happier. According to Aristotle the person who struggles to acquire virtues is in the in the long run a better person and is much happier as they feel that they deserve that happiness as they have worked very hard for it. By continuously practicing their virtues people will soon be acting in.
For the purposes of this essay human virtue is defined as a trait or ability such that one who has that trait or ability would be considered excellent and thus virtuous by human standards. Additionally it is important to keep
The sacrament of matrimony is defined by the Catholic Church as when “a man and a woman form with each other an intimate communion of life and love.” Marriage is a way of joining man and woman to serve God together. According to the dictionary, the definition of marriage is “the state of being united to a person of the opposite sex as husband or wife in a consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law or the state of being united to a person of the same sex in a relationship like that of a traditional marriage.” This definition states that mutual consent is required; however, it overlooks the importance of dedication.