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Aristotle's Moral and Intellectual Virtues
Aristotle's view on virtue
Nicomachean ethics theory
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As I read Aristotle’s book "Nicomachean ethics," I analyzed and comprehend his thoughts on all ten books. I came to realization that Aristotle thoughts throughout the book are difficult to express and clearly comprehend. But though it was difficult to breakdown, I could clearly see that it was written to determine what a human being is as a whole.
To begin with, Aristotle tells us his meaning of virtues and vices. They are not just any habits that we experience, but the outcome of what we feel as pleasure or pain. A virtuous person feels pleasure at the most beautiful action. A person who is not virtuous will feel their pleasure misleading. the definition of virtue is a behavior showing high moral standards or good characteristics. Virtues comes as a consequence of following the right habits. There are two different types of virtues: Intellectual and moral. To have virtues you have to have intellectual morals. This means you ethically do things on your own, you comprehend what doing, and realizing why you doing it. Aristotle says we can describe virtu...
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics. Rpt. in Ethical Theories: A Book of Readings second edition. Ed. A. I. Melden. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1967. 106-109.
In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he discusses the principles of virtue, choices and a desire for an end. In the 5th chapter of book 3, Aristotle gives a possible argument of someone who objects to his beliefs “But someone might argue as follows: ‘All Men seek what appears good to them, but they have no control over how things appear to them; the end appears different to different men” (1114b). Based on the objector’s generalization, he or she believes that all men strive to find the ultimate good, but they don't have the freedom or the wisdom to see things for what they truly are.
Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle attempts to define the meaning of ethics and to create the perfect society as did Plato in The Republic. In Aristotle’s attempt at definition he discusses the difference and significance of voluntary and involuntary action. Beginning by defining, Aristotle soon realizes many situations are too complex for just black vs. white terms and he introduces another term; non-voluntary. This leads to discussion of choice and deliberation, bringing his viewpoints into applicable terms, out of philosophy and into everyday life.
In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle works to foster a more precise understanding of complex ideas including justice and friendship. Of course, he assigns varying levels of importance to qualities depending on how necessary they are to becoming a happy and self-sufficient individual, which he sees as the ultimate aim for human beings. As such, he seems to create a hierarchical structure in which aspects that push an individual closer to happiness are effectively superior to those which do not. Yet, as he develops the ideas of friendship and justice more, dividing them into their constituent categories, the hierarchy between them begins to become more obscured, suggesting that, rather than the two existing in service of one or the other, the
In Aristotle’s The Nicomachean Ethics, he explicates the basic principles of friendship. However, he does not only explain friendship between two people. Aristotle delves further into the topic and sheds light on “intrapersonal” friendship – friendship with oneself. Although this idea of comprehending the relationship people have with their own selves might seem intricate and hard to understand, Aristotle applies the same principles of interpersonal friendship to the kind of friendship people have with themselves. By distinguishing which type of friendship internal friendship belongs to, defining what a friend is, and attributing that definition to both good men and bad men, Aristotle relates friendship to self-love.
One of Aristotle’s most influential works, Nicomachean Ethics, lays claim that there is an actual, material definition of what happiness is and ways one may possibly attain the greatest good in life, which is ultimately to be happy. Furthermore, Aristotle distinguishes that there is a difference between higher and lower pleasures that one ought to seek in life. He believed that the highest good one has the possibility of achieving is grasping true virtue. In Aristotle’s eyes, there are different types of virtue; intellectual virtue is learned from the teachings of society, whereas moral virtue is discovered as result of our habits.
1. Money is both a necessary and useful instrument for justice in society because it establishes a proportional form of exchange, it acts as a medium to mediate exchange and enable supply and demand between people of different avocations thus promoting justice in society as well prompting injustice in society.
Aristotle has been notable for character, ethics which is known also as virtue ethics, his moral Aristotle has often been seen as a leading theorist because of his moral morality, and the perspective on the purpose of what mankind should do for happiness, and the wellbeing of all involved (Pagen,2008). The teaching of Aristotle carries a static characteristic, and recognizes what is rightful for the fulfillment of accomplishing the ultimate joys of happiness in society. Mankind has an individual purpose to be exceptional in all they pursue towards their happiness. The character plays a major part in people proper conduct in society, and how they achieve this reliable character is based on how they morally conduct themselves.
During Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle puts forth a notion of virtue and how one obtains these virtues. Aristotle presents two types of virtues, virtues of thought and virtues of character. Virtues of though, Aristotle says exist in one’s mind. They are harvested and grow from teachings (1103a15). Virtues of character, however, Aristotle says, “none of the virtues of character arises in us naturally” (1103a18). Aristotle argues that these virtues are developed by habit. Once one practices the virtue over and over again, they then are able to gain the virtue (1103a). Basically, he says that the development of the virtuous activity, whether it be generosity, bravery, or thoughtfulness, all come from habit. Another thing that he argues though is that the habit should not make you
The origin of virtue ethics dates back to around 325B.C when Aristotle wrote his book Nicomachean Ethics (Rachel and Rachel, 2010). He asked the question “what is the good of man?” to which he answers “an activity of the soul in conformity with virtue.” Virtues are character traits that allow individuals to act in a way which will perform to their best ability (Velasquez et al., 1996) Examples of virtues are prudence, honesty, courage, compassion, self-control and generosity. Aristotle (Rachel and Rachel, 2010) says that virtues are a midpoint between two extremes, they are “the mean by reference to two vices: the one of excess and the other of deficiency” Velasquez et al (1996) suggest that “virtues are like habits; that is, once acquired, they become characteristic of a person.” Singer (1994) states that there is two kinds of virtues, moral and intellectual. Moral virtue is the result of a habit and intellectual virtues grow with a person through learning. This suggests that there are virtues that you grow up with and act that way because you always have an...
In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the best kind of life to lead, what a person’s goals should be, essentially how to reach eudaimonia. In the beginning of book 1 Aristotle acknowledges you cannot isolate a single feature, for each case is going to have to deal with particulars. His primary object of study is character, for he viewed philosophy of ethics with agent-centered approach. Aristotle believes “we must examine the right way to act, since…actions also control the character of the states we acquire.” (1103b30-32). However, for there are requirements needed for an action to be considered properly virtuous, compared to an action merely “in the right state”. It is the puzzle raised by Aristotle himself leading to the addition of
Aristotle’s thoughts on ethics conclude that all humans must have a purpose in life in order to be happy. I believe that some of the basics of his ideas still hold true today. This essay points out some of those ideas.
Virtue deals with figuring out what’s right and wrong and developing one’s character based on the series of actions that one does. Virtue ethics states that the highest good one can appeal to is the highest law of the community. The main purpose of virtue ethics is to make sound decisions in life. Each action that a person makes should help them learn a little bit about themselves and what is right or wrong. The community helps develop virtues and laws that people can conform to. According to Aristotle, a virtue is the “golden mean” between two respective vices. In some sort, the virtue is the middle ground between two bad things. However, the virtue is not normally directly in the middle of the two virtues. Depending on the person and the
The virtues defined by Aristotle consist of two extremes or vices, the excess and the deficiency. The mean or the intermediate between the excess and the deficiency is the virtue. One virtue Aristotle explains is bravery, with its vices being rashness and cowardice. Each aspect of these is contrary to the others, meaning that the intermediate opposes the extreme. Similarly, one extreme opposes the mean and its other extreme. The implications of this are that the excess opposes the deficiency more than the mean. This causes the mean to sometimes resemble its neighboring extreme. Obtaining the mean involves the challenge of being excellent. The challenging part, however, is “doing it to the right person, in the right amount, at the right time, for the right end, and in the right way” (Nicomachean Ethics 1109a28-29:29). Fortunately, one can steer themselves to the mean if one is conscious of the extreme they are naturally inclined to go towards. Since everybody is uniquely different the means by which one steers themselves in the right direction is different for each individual. In addition, Aristotle names three requirements for an action to be a virtue. First one must be cons...
To start this section on moral virtue, Aristotle begins by showing that intellectual virtue can be caused by education. There are also moral virtues that are developed based on habits in someone’s life. These moral habits are developed by humans and we do not know them until we act on them. We need to have experience in order to experience them. Aristotle gives an example of building a house. We do not know how to build until we actually have done it correctly. We need to be put in a habit to practice moral virtues from a young age in life. He then continues by saying that these are meant to make us good. We need to look at our actions in order to see what is just and worthy. With this, all virtues are somewhere between excess and deficiency.