How Aristotle Thought that the Life of Moral Virtue Is Part of the Best Human Life and How He Is Wrong in His Account

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This paper will demonstrate how Aristotle thought that the life of moral virtue is part of the best human life and how he is incorrect in his account. I will do so by, first outlining what Aristotle defines as the life of moral virtue, next I will describe what he thinks to be the best human life, then I will prove how Aristotle does think that the life of moral virtue fits with the best human life and I will conclude by establishing why Aristotle's premise is incorrect.

Aristotle's theory of moral virtue is that one's main purpose in life is to reach eudaimonia, the state of being happy. Eudaimonia is a position of being that includes fulfilment and success. To reach eudaimonia, one must be able to function correctly in the way that they think and act collectively with their sense of reason and their own natural understanding of moral virtues. 8 Aristotle outlines that the soul as two parts, the rational part that controls thinking and reasoning and irrational part obeys the thinking and reasoning. 7 To do well in the irrational and rational part of the soul is what it means to be the best human. 7 An example of this would be how morally virtuous actions require an individual to be able to choose how to respond to ones own thoughts and feelings. Aristotle believes that every action is considered a pursuit to aim at some good. 1 The "Doctrine of the Mean," is the center of Aristotle's account of moral virtue, morally virtuous actions are what lie between the excess and deficiency of a trait, not too much or too little, these actions are determined contextually and they are relative to you. 14 Aristotle describes two kinds of virtue, moral virtue, which is the ability to reason and intellectual virtue, which is how to know wh...

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...or their own benefit not the for the benefit of others, an example being in using principles from the doctrine of the mean people tend to be drawn to the deficiency aspect of the scale. 14 The soul has a rational part that does the thinking and reasoning and an irrational part that acts on that thinking7, in following these ideals, to do well is both the irrational and rational part of the soul means to excel at being a human according to Aristotle. 7 In reality most people follow the irrational part of the soul. They are driven by their desires rather than thinking them through first. By doing this people would not end up living in happiness, according to Aristotle, thus driving them away from the best life possible. This proves that even though moral virtue is a large part of what brings happiness to someone, it is not the only reason people can live a happy life.

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