Aristotle 's Work On Ethics

This paper explores the things that have influenced my moral worldview. It includes insight on what I consider when making decisions. I discuss who and what I look too when deciding my morals and what I consider to be right and wrong.

As a future teacher, it will be part of my job to increase my students’ moral reasoning. Moral reasoning deals with how individuals think about moral issues. Lawrence Kohlberg developed stages of moral reasoning which researchers use to assess an individual. According to Steinberg (2014), the adults in an adolescent’s life can impact their moral development. Therefore, as their teacher, I will conduct activities in my classroom, such as Collaborative Reasoning, Think-Pair-Share, a line activity, and an online discussion board, which will foster my students’ moral development. In addition, I will monitor my students’ growth by conducting a pre-assessment as well as a final assessment. Through my classroom activities, I expect my students to

Parents who do not give moral guidance to their children are abdicating their fundamental responsibility to teach their child morals. The moral abdication of parents deprives children of a reliable moral framework. Moral abdication of parents denies children set moral standards. Coles demonstrates that when parents assume their children’s capability to understand moral standards they fail to teach them any morals at all.

Aristotle provides the teleological approach of how to live well in his collection of lectures, Nicomachean Ethics. In Book II of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle presents his definition of virtue in which it is "a kind of mean" (N.E. 129). According to Aristotle, moral virtue is a means to an end, happiness. By using Sophocles's Antigone, I will support Aristotle's theory of virtue in which he reasons it to be a state of character between two extremes. A virtue that remains relevant today as it did during Aristotle's era is that of courage. By using Aristotle's account on what represents the virtue of courage, I will demonstrate how it could be applied to the dilemma the characters of Antigone encounter. Even his definition of justice is

The general problem is that because of a decrease in character values taught in the home and in the classroom, an increase in disruptive behavior among young children ages four years old to eleven years old have been dominate in elementary schools (Embry, & Flannery, in press; Topo, 2003;) Manning (2011) notes that proven moral intellect is a crucial factor in aggression and school violence. Also, enough research displays moral reasoning of aggressive and antisocial children tend to be self-oriented, focused on the attainment of peripheral rewards, and the evading of punishment. The specific problem is that there is a need for moral virtues to be taught daily to young children and upper elementary children in the classroom among poverty area elementary schools to help students with the issues of inappropriate behavior (Berkowitz & Bier, 2005; Character Education Partnership, 2003; Davis, 2007).

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.

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discussed his theory of happiness and attempted to answer the many questions related to what makes people happy. Questions asked were “What is the purpose of human existence?” “What is the end goal we are trying to achieve so that we know how we should conduct ourselves?” With so many people seeking pleasure through a variety of means such a wealth, reputation, personal belongings and friends, they may be missing the mark when it comes to happiness. While these each have a value attached to them, none of them contains what is truly needed to be described as the “good” we should be aiming toward. According to Aristotle, to be an ultimate end, an act must be self-sufficient and final, “that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else” (Nicomachean Ethics, 1097a30-34)

Source: The Clearing House, Vol. 64, No. 5, Values Education (May - Jun., 1991), pp. 309-312

The subject of morality has been of much interest in many human societies. Many scholars have been involved in this field in helping people to understand the subject even more. Among the much known contributions in this field, the works buy Aristotle, Kant and Mill stands out. There is a connection between the theories of these scholars and these theories can be aligned to a person’s cultural identity as discussed in the subsequent paragraphs that follows below.

Morals, opinions, and values taught by one’s family or culture may directly or indirectly affect how an individual behaves for the rest of their life as children are highly impressionable. What a child values and believes is right depends on how they were raised, whether by their family or an alternative guardian. An individual may be raised to follow morals and opinions that are considered acceptable in today's society, believing wholeheartedly that those values are right, and no other concept can be true. Someone else could be raised to follow the same or similar morals and opinions, but disagree with them, thus creating their own opinion based on what they may consider

In Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses the idea of moral virtue. Aristotle emphasized the importance of developing moral virtue as the way to achieve what is finally more important, human flourishing (eudaimonia). Aristotle makes the argument in Book II that moral virtue arises from habit—equating ethical character to a skill that is acquired through practice, such as learning a musical instrument. However in Book III, Aristotle argues that a person 's moral virtue is voluntary, as it results from many individual actions which are under his own control. Thus, Aristotle confronts us with an inherently problematic account of moral virtue.

The complexity of this area and the concepts involved necessitates a rather expansive look at the perspectives on Moral Development in order to develop contextual

In books one and two of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle lays a foundation for and explains reasoning behind his theory of moral virtue. Aristotle does this to give understanding of what it means to be morally virtuous, and how to achieve it. I believe Aristotle’s theory, in the face of objections regarding the relativity of virtue, is sufficient to achieve an understanding to what it means to be morally virtuous and how to act in a morally virtuous manner.

When we are young our morality is shaped as we learn from our family and the environment. “Psychologists say a child must develop a sense of values by the age of seven to become an adult with a conscience” (Rosenstand 4). Children experience a plethora of information and subsequently build their personalities based on what they learn from growing up in their given culture. We are a product of our environment in the sense that we

Moral education is a programme of study which teaches the pupil about behaving in accordance with what is good while rejecting the bad. It is a holistic approach to stimulate character building and moral development (Okoh;