Summary Of Chapter 7 Aristotle's Virtue

In the conclusion, Socrates explains virtue is a gift from the gods that everyone should have it. An alternation to saying virtue is knowledge. Based on the reading, virtue is a true opinion. Subsequently, true opinion needs to be tied down to be knowledge. Still, true opinion is as valuable as knowledge, if it is dependable. Socrates says that we still have not scrutinized what virtue truly is.

This is a clearer example of what Plato wrote about. Socrates said that virtue is knowledge which is to know what is right is to do what is right. All wrong doing is the result of ignorance, nobody chooses to do wrong purposely. Therefore, to be honest you must have true knowledge. Plato was trying to find a solution to the problem that although there is fundamental steadiness in the world (sun comes up every morning), it is constantly changing (you never step into the same river twice). An old theory about this problem is that we gain all knowledge from our senses. Plato disagreed with this. He said that because the world is constantly changing, our senses cannot be trusted. Socrates sets up a mathematical problem for a slave boy. The slave boy knows the answer, yet he has not been taught arithmetic. Plato suggests that the slave boy remembers the answer to the problem, which has been in

What arguments do Socrates and his interlocutors provide in these dialogues and what does their discussion suggest about the way in which virtue is in fact acquired? Socrates initiates the inquiries into this problem in each dialogue the same way, that is, to admit no knowledge of the subject at hand. He further admits that he could not possibly teach virtue without knowing what virtue is, “if I do not know what a thing is, how could I know what to teach?” (ho de me oida ti estin,

So now I do not know what virtue is; perhaps you knew before you contacted me, but now you are certainly like one who does not know. Nevertheless I want to examine and seek together with you what it may be.” (Meno 80d) to which Meno replies “Meno: How will you look for it, Socrates, when you do not know at all what it is? How will you aim to search for something you do not

trange; that was the only word to describe it. Aristotle’s eyes widened as he quickly leaped off his bike, making his way towards the abnormality. The peculiar flower caught his interest; he had never seen anything like it. He wandered off into this field not too far from his house, on a quest for flowers. However, this was not what he expected. This flower was such a beauty, it did not belong on Earth. Excitement flickered in his eyes. Aristotle was still in the early stages of becoming a botanist, but he knew almost too much about plants. A gleeful laugh escaped his lips, and he wasted no time in uprooting the flower from its spot. His hands shook with delight as he placed the flower in the basket of his bike, that previously occupied the ground. His legs burned when he raced home, his smile shined brightly in the afternoon sunlight.

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.

In Chapter 8, Sandel begins to introduce Aristotle's take on justice. As Sandel mentioned, Aristotle breaks justice into two ideas, one that sees justice as teleological and one that sees justice as honorific. In order for justice to be teleological, we have to think about the purpose, end or essential nature of the social practice in question, and only then we can draw the line between what is right and what is wrong. Moreover, for justice to be honorific, one needs to argue about the telos, or purpose, of a practice to reason and argue about what virtues it should honor and reward. It is important to mention that Aristotle thinks that arguments and debates about justice are debates about honor, virtue and that nature of the good life.

In other words, the thinker is not only the 'best' person, but is also most like God. Aristotle believed in virtue ethics – where the purpose was to become a good person and have good

Aristotle didn’t believe that people had good or bad behaviors but thet had good or bad character traits. Aristotle said that all individuals are made out of a mix of bad habit (awful character qualities) and excellence (great character attributes). He utilizes this idea to clarify the proposition: Virtue is a mien worried with decision.

Lastly, moral virtue helps guide society as a whole. In an analogy, think of society as a machine made up of a million micro-gears. These gears work together perfectly when being turned, however, some gears are rusting. As more and more gears rust, the machine is gradually losing efficiency as the amount of rusted gears accumulate. Moral virtue in this analogy is oil, as it helps society move along faster by helping the rusted gears move smoother.

Aristotle points out that men look at the apparent good but may not have control over their appearance. I disagree with this argument because we are all responsible for our actions and the end results of them. All men are aiming for happiness in the end and when they do good motives, in the end what will appear to him is something good. The appearance ultimately depends on the person’s character. For example, if someone forgets their wallet in a store, someone who has a kind heart will try and find the person or report it, while someone who is not kind will either take the money out the wallet, not return it to the person or report it. The apparent good will appear different for these two people because of their different characters.

What do Aristotle mean by real virtue, that is, virtue in the strict sense, and whyc does such virtue require phronesis? According to Aristotle, the contrast between phronesis and cleverness is parallel to that between virtue in the strict sense and natural. Aristotle holds that phronesis is always good, good without qualification, whereas in some cleverness is a bad thing. Likewise, Aristotle now says that natural virtue like cleverness, can be a bad thing: since it si not guidedby phronesis, natural virtue is as likely to go wrong as right, like a body moving without the guidance of sight. This is not surprising, sine it is pronesis that makes one reliable at specifying one’s end correctly and in a balanced, unified way. By contrast, virtue

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.

To further imply that virtue is not teachable, the conclusion is reached that if there are no teachers or pupils of a topic, the subject can't be taught. Then, after an involved conversation with Anytus, it is proved that virtue cannot be taught, and since it cannot be taught, it is later agreed that, in light of this, virtue cannot be knowledge. As Socrates sees it, since virtue is not knowledge, it must be that virtue is only present in those people who have acquired it from the gods.

Intellectual virtues are those that can be obtained simply through learning or experience. These virtues of thought can be thought of as realizations in the sense that they can be simply taught or learned over a long period of time through experience. Examples of intellectual virtues are phronesis, techne, and nous. Phronesis is the ability to make practical and relevant decisions, techne describes one’s proficiency in the making things, and nous describes one’s ability to grasp the underlying nature of a situation before being told how it works. Moral virtues are obtained through practice and can be viewed more as character traits rather than realizations. They consist of virtues such as faith, hope, charity, prudence, temperance, courage, and justice to name a few. These virtues are developed over time and usually have a mean or appropriate amount to which they should be expressed. For example, under expressing a virtue such as courage may hold one back from taking on new challenges, causing their work to stagnate. Over expressing the trait of courage can have disastrous outcomes as well as it can lead one to take unnecessary risks and cause possible harm to themselves or other. A balance is important in these practiced