Human character is expressed through consistent virtue that is engrained in a person and demonstrates tenacity in the face of testing. In Wright’s, After You Believe, Wright describes human character as a pattern of thinking and acting which runs right through a person. If a person fails to demonstrate consistency of virtue in the presence of pressure, the person’s true nature becomes apparent and his or her character is jeopardized. A person may be outwardly humble, yet in the face of demotion or false accusation, he may harbor offense and pride. In order to express genuine character, a person must undergo character transformation. Transformation solidifies a person’s values in their way of thinking and behaving. According to Wright, this …show more content…
Aristotle’s three-fold pattern of transformation includes telos or the goal, the strengths of character necessary to reach those goals, and the moral training process in which strengths turn into habits. Similar to Wright’s argument of forming daily habits to achieve a goal, Aristotle emphasized practicing the strengths of character until they become second nature. According to Aristotle, the attainment of cardinal virtues such as courage, justice, prudence, and temperance enables a person to achieve eudaimonia, or “the ideal of a fully flourishing human being.” While paralleling the biblical vision of human flourishing with Aristotle’s philosophy of virtue attainment, Wright further develops human flourishing beyond gaining moral status, but becoming citizens of God’s coming kingdom. Wright also draws a line between the biblical and Greek understanding of desirable virtues and the means of attaining them. Unlike the Greek, Jesus and Paul emphasized virtues of love, kindness, forgiveness, and humility, which were inferior qualities in Greek …show more content…
Earlier in the book, Wright declares that the transformation of character is the ultimate goal of a believer after salvation. If character were the goal and its attainment is through self-discipline, what would differentiate Christianity from other religious thoughts? World religions that emphasize discipline, self-denial, and virtue are ubiquitous and essentially founded on the ideal of man’s effort to attain the Divine. This, however, does not undermine the essential role of self-discipline in Christian living. The apostle Paul describes his lifestyle of subjecting his flesh to his lifelong pursuit of the eternal prize, “No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” However, it is by beholding Christ that we become conformed into His image and manifest His character by His transforming power. “We all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the
Aristotle’s virtue ethics is based on eudaimonia. Eudaimonia is the ultimate end which means that your life is flourishing and you’re doing well in life. Eudaimonia is self-sufficient and gives one the ability to make life choices and have a lack for nothing.
Character is often the setting stone on what a person is judged upon. For someone to have character, they must noticeably stand out, and do extraordinary tasks that a normal student would not usually do. From school activities to sports clubs, I myself carry unique characteristics that set me apart from other students.
Inwardly examining his own nature, man would prefer to see himself as a virtuously courageous being designed in the image of a divine supernatural force. Not to say that the true nature of man is a complete beast, he does posses, like many other creatures admirable traits. As author Matt Ridley examines the nature of man in his work The Origins of Virtue, both the selfish and altruistic sides of man are explored. Upon making an honest and accurate assessment of his character, it seems evident that man is not such a creature divinely set apart from the trappings of selfishness and immorality. Rather than put man at either extreme it seems more accurate to describe man as a creature whose tendency is to look out for himself first, as a means of survival.
U.S. Department of Education. (2011). Character education…our shared responsibility. Retrieved August 22, 2011 from http://www2.ed.gov.
In the book Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses his collection of lecture notes in order to establish the best way to live and acquire happiness. Aristotle says, “Virtue, then, is a state that decides consisting in a mean, the mean relative to us,.. .It is a mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency.” The virtues that Aristotle speaks about in Nicomachean Ethics are: bravery, temperance, generosity, magnificence, magnanimity, and mildness. According to Aristotle, in order to live a happy life you must obtain these virtues and be morally good. Living a virtuous life is not an activity, but a predisposition. This means that you are genuinely inclined to act virtuously for the appropriate reasons.
Contrary to Aristotle’s view that supreme happiness is related to earthly living, Augustine argues that supreme happiness is not truly found until one seeks eternal life with God. While both mostly agree on the definitions of the virtues, differences arise when one looks at their views on the ends that those virtues should be directed towards. In this essay, I will discuss both Aristotle and Augustine’s ideas of virtues and what each thinks humans should do in order to truly find and achieve the supreme good of happiness.
Although, there are an infinite amount of examples in this story, the young characters adapted their personality, actions and decisions based on the group's approval, rather than what they believe as an individual. The Man in the Well was not just one example but, many of these concepts of transformation are visible in schools, shows and reality itself.
Virtue theory is the best ethical theory because it emphasizes the morality of an individual in which their act is upon pure goodness and presents as a model to motivate others. Aristotle was a classical proponent of virtue theory who illustrates the development habitual acts out of moral goodness. Plato renders a brief list of cardinal virtues consisting of wisdom, temperance, courage, and justice. This ethical theory prominently contradicts and links to other theories that personifies the ideal being. However, virtue theorists differ from their own expression of these qualities yet it sets a tone that reflects on the desire to express kindness toward others.
One of Aristotle’s conclusions in the first book of Nicomachean Ethics is that “human good turns out to be the soul’s activity that expresses virtue”(EN 1.7.1098a17). This conclusion can be explicated with Aristotle’s definitions and reasonings concerning good, activity of soul, and excellence through virtue; all with respect to happiness.
person of the novel, different traits that can lead us to talk about virtue, and one of them is
According to Aristotle, a virtue is a state that makes something good, and in order for something to be good, it must fulfill its function well. The proper function of a human soul is to reason well. Aristotle says that there are two parts of the soul that correspond to different types of virtues: the appetitive part of the soul involves character virtues, while the rational part involves intellectual virtues. The character virtues allow one to deliberate and find the “golden mean” in a specific situation, while the intellectual virtues allow one to contemplate and seek the truth. A virtuous person is someone who maintains an appropriate balance of these two parts of the soul, which allows them to reason well in different types of situations.
The meaning of eudaimonia, etymologically, is ‘good spirit’ and it is generally translated as ‘happiness’; in Aristotelian terms, ‘happiness’ represents the highest human good and it is also the representation of the soul’s virtues. The identification of the soul parts as the contributors and main elements for the function of the most important human activity (reasoning), marks the inevitable psychological asset of Aristotle’s thinking; specifically, the classification of human virtues derives from the analysis of the soul’s types, attributing to human beings the ability of reasoning which distinguishes human beings from the rest of ‘natural bodies.’ Indeed, reason exists in two parts of the soul, namely the rational and the appetitive (desires or passions), and so it expresses within two different virtues, the moral and intellectual ones.
It was Aristotle’s belief that everything, including humans, had a telos or goal in life. The end result or goal was said to be happiness or “eudaimonia”. He explained that eudaimonia was different for each person, and that each had a different idea of what it meant. Further, he said that people must do things in moderation, but at the same time do enough. The theory, of “the golden mean of moderation” was the basis to Aristotle's idea of the human telos and concluded that living a virtuous life must be the same for all people. Aristotle maintained that the natural human goal to be happy could only be achieved once each individual determined his/her goal. A person’s telos is would usually be what that individual alone can do best. Aristotle described the humans as "rational animals" whose telos was to reason. Accordingly, Aristotle thought that in order for humans to be happy, they would have to be able to reason, and to be governed by reason. If a person had difficulty behaving morally or with ethics, he was thought to be “imperfect”. Moral virtue, a principle of happiness, was the ability to evade extremes in behavior and further to find the mean between it and adequacy. Aristotle’s idea of an ideal state was one where the populous was able to practice eth...
Aristotle once stated that, “But if happiness be the exercise of virtue, it is reasonable to suppose that it will be the exercise of the highest virtue; and that will be the virtue or excellence of the best part of us.” (481) It is through Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics that we are able to gain insight into ancient Greece’s moral and ethical thoughts. Aristotle argues his theory on what happiness and virtue are and how man should achieve them.
the right way to go. Aristotle says that virtues are something that we