The Ethics Of Aristotle 's Ethics

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 passed. 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 returned to them, against her will. Do ethics support the law in this case? Discuss.

Aristotle believes that happiness is an activity “in accord with virtue.” Happiness is in accord with the most excellent virtue. All men agreed that happiness is to “live well”, but Aristotle expands this further into a whole

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.

Accepting these premises, it follows that virtue is necessary for happiness. Aristotle notes that studying virtues will likely help in studying happiness and he begins this study by defining a virtue. A virtue is the mean between two extremes of deficiency and excess. For example, the virtue of

According to Aristotle’s arguments and views on happiness, it is convincing that people know what happiness is, but when defining the word “happiness”, it depends on the person’s knowledge and virtue or excellence. However, Aristotle’s views on happiness about the goods: honor, pleasure, and intelligence are not sounding, because he says that no one chooses happiness based on honor, pleasure or anything at all, which is invalid. Happiness has a meaning and it happens when someone feels satisfied.

Now happiness, more than anything else, seems complete without qualification. For we always choose it because of itself, never because of something else. Honor, pleasure, understanding, and every 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

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle define happiness as the ‘highest good’. Aristotle states that everyone agrees that this highest good is happiness, but often disagree about what happiness really is. Many would believe that happiness is gained from material possessions, wealth or high social status, but Aristotle states that this is not the highest good. Aristotle believed that to obtain happiness, we must have virtue. Virtue is defined as a state of being and acting in the correct manner with high moral standards, neither acting in

Now we move on to a more pressing question: how do you attain happiness? Aristotle holds that “perhaps we shall find the best good (happiness) if we first find the function of a human being” (1.7.1097b24). He explains that as trades-people have functions so must human beings have function. This function must also set humans apart form the vegetable and animal kingdoms in order to be a truly human function. “The remaining possibility, then, is some sort of life or action of the [part of the soul] that has reason”(1.7.1098a3).

According to Aristotle, a virtue is a ‘trait of mind’ or ‘character’ which helps human in attaining a good personality in life. Just like everything in life has its own purpose of existence, likewise, human have the “purpose to lead a good life. Aristotle argues that virtue is achieved by maintaining the ‘means’ which is a “peaceful way of life”, and he explained the nature of virtue and how we can achieve it, by using ‘moral virtue’. Although Aristotle focus more on ethical virtue, there are two types of virtue which are, ‘intellectual virtues’ and ‘ethical virtues’. Ethical virtue is habit we must pursue or learn from relatives and friends. They are not inherent, but people practice them to transform them into habitation to use them when necessary such as truthfulness, generosity, honesty, loyalty, respect, integrity, which are all example of ‘moral behavior’. While intellectual virtues such as wisdom, intelligence, prudence, originate and grow mostly by teaching. Human was not born with virtues, but we have the capacity to accept and perfect virtues within our lives to achieve the best life and develop a virtuous character. Virtue manifest itself in action, and our action which comes with reasoning after learning, is what counts as virtuous character, provided one is in a “stable equilibrium of the soul”. in choosing the action. Reasoning is what makes humans unique and the power of reasoning if used positively can make humans achieve happiness. Aristotle proposed that the ultimate end we seek in pursuing the virtuous life is to

He states that the highest goal which all things aim is happiness, and in order to have happiness and live happily one must know the function of the man. Happiness is not itself a virtue, but a virtuous activity. However, I do not agree with his arguments. Not every person may see happiness as the highest goal in which all things aim. Also, not every person who lives a happy life is virtuous as well. I think that happiness and virtue depends on the person, their experiences, values and beliefs, things in which Aristotle does not

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

Happiness is the fundamental objective of life. This bold statement is unanimously agreed upon among generations of people on every corner of our planet. However, the real question that has been contested for centuries is the true meaning of happiness? The true meaning of happiness is one of the most highly debated philosophy topics in history. Most famous are the writings of Aristotle and John Stuart Mill who both paint very opposing pictures of happiness. Mill believes happiness is obtained through pleasure and the absence of pain. On the other hand, Aristotle insist happiness is obtained through living a fulfilling, virtuous life. This passage will examine Aristotle 's and Mill 's views on happiness as well as give an opinion one which philosophical theory is most convincing.

To start with, Aristotle highlights that the perception of virtue is different for everyone, and there are a lot of factors which influence it. For example, people's moral principles, mentality, the society they live in and its formative culture peculiarities. The highest human good is considered to be in close relations with the sense of happiness. As all people have different characters, attitudes to life, moral values, it is difficult to define the conditions on which their happiness depends. Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, writes that the highest human good "proves to be the activity of the soul in accord with virtue" (Aristotle, trans. Irvin T., 1999). In other words, it is the way of a person's appropriate behavior in the situations of different nature and difficulty in his or her life.

Aristotle believes there to be one ultimate end that humans hope to achieve. As all actions lead to some good or end, and these ends are useful for another desired end, the latter end is the one that is truly desired. If all ends lead to another end, eventually there will be what would be considered the highest end, one in which all other ends are aiming towards reaching. Aristotle believes this end to be Eudaimonia, or happiness. It can be said that all other ends achieved are in hopes of achieving happiness, and that happiness is an end for the sake of itself. This end then would