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

There is also a personal characteristic aspect of virtue according to Aristotle. Virtue is not just something that everybody processes and processes at the same level. People

Nicomachean Ethics teaches that in all the activities that we aim to accomplish, the good should be something final and self-sufficient. Aristotle explains, “Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good” (Aristotle 624). Aristotle tells us as the reader that our virtues are the reason why we chose to pursue things that we like and stay away from the things that we do not like. We chose to be around things that brings us joy. Virtue is defined as a moral excellence. Aristotle explains, “Since things that are found in the soul are of three kinds – passions, faculties, states of character – virtues must be one of these” (Aristotle 627). An example of passion can be a fear or something that

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

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’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

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.

A married couple, both addicted to drugs, is unable to care for their infant daughter. She is taken from them by court order and placed in a foster home. The years pass. She comes to regard her foster parents as her real parents. They love her as they would their own daughter. When the child is 9 years old, the natural parents, rehabilitated from drugs, begin court action to regain custody. The case is decided in their favor. The child is

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

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.

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 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.

A virtue is "the mean between extremes" reflecting a state of human character and is expressed through voluntary actions, i.e. carried out knowingly, neither coincidentally nor compelled external forces (Irwin, 1999). According to Fisher and Lovell (2009), virtues are personal qualities that provide the basis for the individual to lead a good, noble, or happy life (Fisher & Lovell, 2003, p. 103). Aristotelian virtues are described in accordance with specific situations. For example, courage is discussed with respect to situations that provoke fear; justice is discussed with respect to situations calling for distributing resources (Hackett & Wang, 2012, p. 870).

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.