Aristotle Ethical Virtue

Aristotle was a premier Greek philosopher who had some very interesting concepts on ethics, which are collectively called the Nicomachean Ethics. His collection of work has led to the development of many theories on the basis for human existence. The main question by Aristotle’s series of lectures is the bane of human existence. According to Aristotle, humans seek happiness (4). If anything promises happiness, then human will go in the direction it leads. Aristotle was also just as interested in other areas such as virtue. His opinion of human ethical action is based on the rationality of human beings. Being rational beings, human beings will always assess situations before making decisions. Virtue is not only a predisposition found in

Plato and Aristotle are great philosophers and they have talked a lot about virtue. Although these two people started from similar settings, their ideas about virtue were actually different. Plato’s philosophy was more about non-material things, like ideas and love. On the other hand, Aristotle liked things that are more measurable and physicals. In this paper, I will first discuss Plato’s ideas about the nature of virtue, which people have virtue when they are born and people can develop virtue when they believe in god. Then, I will follow a discussion of Aristotle’s ideas that virtue can be learned by ourselves. Finally, I will conclude by comparing the two different ideas virtue’s nature. To sum

Aristotle outlined a guide to ethics that sought, first and foremost, a degree of applicability that does not falter in its representations of humankind. Perhaps this is the reason that Aristotle plays close attention to one of humankinds most treasured and hard-wearing concepts - friendship. It would be fair to say that friendship has cemented a position as one of the most fundamental constituents that contribute to the phenomenon of daily living. Personal interactions and interpersonal relations can often be observed as “amongst friends” and it’s often associated kinship has proved a valuable role in team exercises such as many sports may highlight.

Aristotle found that there are two kinds of virtues of the soul. First, there are virtues of thought, such as wisdom. Next, there are virtues of character, such as generosity. The main focus of his virtue ethics lies in the virtues of character. Aristotle assumed that these virtues are learned through habit. For example, whereas intellectual virtue may arise from reading a book, the adoption of virtuous character is inherited solely by practice. Therefore, it is through a person's upbringing that moral virtues are cultivated, and it is through the habit of thinking virtuously that one can excel towards happiness.

In the book Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle discusses the nature of ethics and its connection to human existence. He later turns to the nature of virtue, which he sees as traits that allows people to live well in communities. He finds that to be happy social institutions are necessary, therefore the thought that there is a moral person cannot exist apart from the political setting that one develops their virtues for a good life from. After Aristotle found ethics a part of politics, he found that moral virtues and intellectual virtues are different from one another. Intellectual virtues can be taught but moral have to be lived in order to learn and together they are to sought to bring a happy life (Aristotle, pg. 508).

Aristotle’s virtue ethics is engrossed in this story through and through. The “highest good”, while it may not be applicable to the people hurt by the hurricane, can be seen in the actions of J.J. as well as Mark Cuban. The fact that they were able to put this complex of a mission together on such short notice is not only an attribute to their virtues and rationality but can also be herald to their ability to complete such a task so well; functionality. To simply donate a few dollars would have been an example of completing one's function to support the relief but to use privately owned property, donate, and start a fundraiser that is now raking in aid and money to help the city rebuild is to go above and beyond normal functionality. The virtue

In Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle speaks of virtue and the conditions one must be in order for certain actions to be considered virtuous. Although challenged by the views of Stephen Buckle, these conditions that Aristotle has set have not only been influential throughout works of literature, especially in Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Right of Women,” but support my position in Aristotle’s perspective in virtuous actions as well. It can be argued that there are various methods for one to life a fulfilling life, however, Aristotle explains that the key to a happy life is to live virtuously. He goes on and demonstrates that there are two kinds of virtue (intellectual and moral) and that there are certain conditions

There are two kinds of virtues: moral and intellectual. Intellectual virtues are learned by experience and time, whereas moral virtues are learned by habits and practice. Virtues are not given to us at birth (nature); we have to make our own effort to train ourselves to be virtuous. In the next few paragraphs, Aristotle emphasizes how pleasure and pain play an important role in how our moral virtues are developed. To explain he uses an example of a glutton and a temperate person and the pleasure/pain of food. Then he talks about how many people could be just but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are virtuous. He proceeds to talk about his three criteria to determine if a person is virtuous. First criteria is virtuous people know that

What is virtue? The philosophies of Aristotle and Confucius establish virtue as a moral trait that encompasses love, courage, good manners, and happiness. To achieve virtue, one must display qualities of altruism and promote benevolence in every action. The virtuous person lives by a high moral standard that is achieved through the habitual conditioning of disposition. Temperament is trained by recurrently choosing the best course of action or the one that causes the least amount of pain or suffering towards others. The virtuous person, in Confucian principles, performs in accordance to ren to achieve the dao. According to Aristotle, the pinnacle of virtue is happiness. Therefore, the philosophies of Aristotle and Confucius can be used to

Aristotle gave two ways virtue can be obtained, the ways in which humans acquire virtue. “Virtue of thought and character.” Mostly virtue is obtained from habit, “virtue of character” which is ethical. It can be through moral principles, knowledge, or socially, which completes us as humans. It becomes a habit, when see the habit every day or been taught about it, from a young age. We work towards this behavior and act upon that virtue as a lifestyle. “Virtue by contrast, we acquire, just as we acquire crafts, by having first activated them” (285). Just like the phrase “practice makes perfect,” it is a virtue if we keep on to it, doing the same thing over again and believing in that which brings happiness.

According to Aristotle virtue is achieving excellence of the soul. (1) For man to become virtuous they must build habits that model virtuous behavior. Aristotle believed that moral virtue forms through habit and no one is born virtuous. Under this premise virtue is both learned and practiced through our behaviors. When one acts in a moral and virtuous way they become more virtuous, the opposite is true also that if one acts in a non-virtuous way they will learn to become less virtuous. To be virtuous you also must maintain a balance which is called the mean.

Aristotle’s theory will be discussed in full length on his theory of virtue. Now Aristotle did believe in a multitude of theories that are all based off of virtue, but also the soul. To Aristotle, virtue is an excellence, which comes after happiness and achieving our final goal. When Aristotle talks about an individual’s final goal and excellence of that

Virtue ethics was written by a Greek philosopher names Aristotle. Aristotle believed that every human’s goal was happiness. Some philosophers argued that happiness only came from following a set of rules, while Aristotle argued that the best way to have happiness is to cultivate a virtuous character. The two kinds of virtues he recognized were moral virtue and intellectual virtue. The virtue that should be focused on to develop a virtuous character is moral virtue. According to Aristotle, while we are born with a capacity to be virtuous, being virtuous is like a skill that we need to learn and practice to be good at. The key element to being virtuous is being able to find the mean or right amount of our various emotions, dispositions, and actions. Aristotle wrote: “Anybody can become angry- that is easy, but to be angry with the right person and to the right degree and at the right time and for

Aristotle, a prominent ancient Greek philosopher, wrote about what makes humans act in a way that benefits others for the better. One of those beneficial behaviors Aristotle mentioned was called virtuous behaviors. According to Aristotle, if there are virtues than one, the good will express the best and most complete virtue. In other words, it is best to engage in complete virtues, not incomplete ones. Aristotle believed that human good is equal to virtue, and that we should commit acts of virtue because it is good for ourselves and for the rest of the world. In other words, the good is something that must be sought for the sake of doing virtue, not to satisfy an end goal of a want that is the result of virtue. Aristotle believed that the human good is when the human soul displays conveying virtue. It is overall the type of virtue in which an individual does acts of good for the sake of doing good, and the good things that they participate are a higher value because they benefit people the most. In addition, the virtues that Aristotle would have emphasized on are ones in which people do things that not only benefit themselves, but benefit others. To put it in a different context, the best types of virtues are ones in which the goal is not self-satisfaction but instead for the greater good.

In that concern there is no more important problem than the age-old one which was first discussed systematically here, in Greece, more than two thousand years ago.