Aristotle's Doctrine of the Mean

Virtue is a particular moral excellence, a beneficial quality, or power of a thing, and masculine strength or courage. At the end of the Meno, Socrates states that the hypothesis, "if knowledge is virtue, it can be taught." 1 The

Virtue is behavior showing high moral standards. People can accept this definition as true for three reasons. First of all it includes all types of virtue, and second it does not include non-virtuous characteristics. All things that are classed as a virtue are under the definition. Some kinds of Virtue include justice, loyalty, love and kindness. All of these character traits fit the definition of virtue. For example, Justice means to treat people fairly and morally. In order to dispense justice, you must have moral standards. Therefore, it fits the definition of virtue. Loyalty is another example that fits the definition of virtue. Loyalty means a strong feeling of support and allegiance. In order to have loyalty, that does not include indoctrination, you must

According to Aristotle, intellectual virtues belong in the ‘rational’ fragment of the soul and moral virtues lie in the ‘irrational’ measure of the soul However, they are both dependant on reason. Although Aristotle recognised many virtues, he was an advocate for the notion of the existence of only four cardinal virtues. His proposal proved to be popular in the society that he lived in, being acknowledged by Plato and other bodies. The four cardinal virtues are: courage, a virtue which ensures control in the interest of goodness, temperance, a virtue which diminishes wants and desires by limiting them to reason, justice, the only virtue that consists of expressing care for other beings. A human that possesses the virtue of justice has the ability to practise this virtue on other human beings and not solely on themselves. The final and one of the most important virtues is prudence, a logical virtue of practical reason by which we separate the good and the methods of achieving it. Aristotle accentuates that virtues are pragmatic skills and hence experience guides us towards becoming more dexterous in avoiding deficiency. Although familiarity with the vices as extremes supports us in our aspiration for the mean, the wider connotations of the doctrine is that only through experience will we as humans come to know the right pretences and

According to Plato, virtue is an innate ability of a man to go through intellectual suffering in order to think past the visible, material world, which is just “a shadowy imitation” of an ideal world of knowledge (Plato). Even though virtuous actions can be practiced, the original ability or quality is innate. Every single virtue fits into this Plato’s definition and contributes to a person’s knowledge of the intellectual world. For instance, classical virtue of fortitude enables a man to question even the most controversial topics. What is more, theological virtue of faith persuades a man that his suffering will eventually pay off. Once a person engages in virtuous activities, they attain wisdom, and wisdom, () finally leads to happiness. Considering all that, every virtue seems to be equally

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores virtues as necessary conditions for being happy. A virtuous person is a person with a disposition toward virtuous actions and who derives pleasure from behaving virtuously. Aristotle distinguishes between two types of human virtue: virtues of thought and virtues of character. Virtues of thought are acquired through learning and include virtues like wisdom and prudence; virtues of character include bravery and charity, which are acquired by habituation and require external goods to develop. As a consequence, not all people can acquire virtues of character because not all people have the external goods and resources required to develop that disposition.

“Virtue is the perfection of human activity — that is to say, virtue is human activity at its best. Virtue describes the best traits of human action. The word itself comes from the Latin word for strength or power, vis. As with any human strength, it is built up through repetition. Do something good repeatedly and it becomes a good habit; do it long enough and it becomes a virtue. Virtue is developed by positive action, so merely avoiding evil or sin is not virtuous. Virtue consists in acting in a positive way to bring about good things such as justice, mercy or

When I think of what it means to be virtuous, I am drawn to the idea of commitment to the good and an unrelenting desire for greatness. To me, the virtuous are those who strive to perfect themselves and approach every issue with the intent of doing what is best. I am led to this conception of virtue because I acknowledge that in life, perfection is unattainable. Therefore virtue is not complete goodness, but rather a genuine commitment to the pursuit of what is right.

Based on the preceding analysis, I think Aristotle’s viewpoint provides the best way to consider this issue. His approach is the most useful for two main reasons, namely his concept of the golden mean and his idea about learning which virtues to follow based on role models. These ideas strike me as the most realistically applicable of all three theorists. In other words, Aristotle’s system of ethics is one that is useful in practice, not just on paper.

Unlike happiness, virtue is not an activity, but a disposition and a state of being. More precisely, it is a disposition to behave in the right manner. In Aristotle’s description, virtues are the “means” and intermediate states between what he considers vicious states (excess and deficiency). In other words, they are the moderation of desiring too much and desiring too little. For example, the state of being courageous is considered a virtuous disposition because it moderates the states of being cowardly (deficit) and rash (excess). Furthermore, Aristotle describes the virtuous person as one whose passions and deliberation are aligned; someone whose possession of goodness allows their acts to be guided by the balance of their “means” and their rationality. This means that to achieve a virtuous state one has to consistently aim for the “mean” of their actions to the point where it’s instinctive. (Nic. Ethics II 6).

Aristotle further states that you cannot merely define virtue in terms of characteristics, you must also specify the kind of characteristic, and that this virtue renders good the thing itself of which it is the excellence, and performs its function well at the same time.(2)

Virtues are gained through nurture, and backing his thought, he explained that if we are born virtuously then we could not become bad. Yet, there are a number of bad people in the world. Aristotle saw that virtue and duty had a strong connection. This is because duty is an act in accordance with law, which enforces perfections. Since laws keep us in line, and our duty is to follow these laws, virtues come if you commit your duty. It is a cycle that repeats itself in the positive and the negative depending how we act. Because Aristotle was a Christian, he saw God as everlasting, and overall, see’s god as an important figure to live up to. Aristotle laid the framework to what would be the future of ethics. Although what he had reported would be found eventually, his views are what most believed as the golden rule, and future philosophers would just string off his ideas.

It is a simple exercise to find the mean between two numbers, it is the midpoint between any two values on the number line. However, when you drift away from the number system, calculating the mean of a set can be quite a different process. If you consider fear and confidence, it is less intuitive that the mean of these two qualities is bravery. And such, it even follows that there is no single variable that defines bravery. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses one of his most famous principles in great detail, the ‘Doctrine of the Mean’. It declares that a moral (ethical) action is a mean between two extremes, and that a virtuous person is capable of choosing the mean consistently.

Aristotle believes that happiness is the ultimate goal in life. You can’t reach happiness unless you work hard and become successful. That is where virtue comes into play. A human’s function is to engage in “an activity of the soul which is in accordance with virtue” and which “is in conformity with reason” (page 76, Palmer). The two kinds of virtue are intellectual and moral. Our virtues are what make us all individual and all different. Intellectual virtues are what we are born with and what we learn. It is our nature as humans and what we have inherited that makes desire to learn. As humans, we develop wisdom to help guide us to a good life. With the intellectual virtue you develop two different kinds of wisdom: practical and

Aristotle’s notions of virtues are the heart of the subject matter in Aretaic Ethics. The concept of Aretaic ethics comes from the Greek word “arete” which translates as human excellence or excellence of character, virtue (Virtue Ethics, 2013). Virtue ethics emphasizes being a certain person with certain quality of character. Its basic concept is that the virtue or value of the actions is not in the act itself, rather it is in the heart of the actor. Though it may seem not overly compatible with today’s notions, I believe Aristotle’s notions of virtues are an important precursor towards self fulfillment and harmonized society.

Another part of Aristotles' theory includes the idea of virtue. From my understanding, Virtue of character has a lot to do with our actions. It looks at what makes us do what we do. He explains, “Virtue, then, is of two sorts, virtue of thought and virtue of character” (Aristotle 18). In order to reach eudaimonia, we have to act virtuously. That is done by doing the right thing and knowing that you are doing it. Virtue of character is something that we do not automatically just have. It is something that we have to work on and practice. With practice, right actions will become habits. The virtuous person is someone who does not have to think about what the right thing to do is, they just do it.