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The Ethics Of The Soul Is Governed By Two Influences Essay

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The concepts of reason and passion are related to virtue, vice, and continence, incontinence in the Ethics. For Aristotle, the soul is governed by two influences; one’s reason and passion. The state of one’s character will either reside in a virtuous form or a state of vice. Where there exists a moral virtue, there also exist intellectual virtue inside the soul that help guide one’s reason to act in correct ways. The concepts of continence and incontinence are tied to the moral virtue and intellectual virtue of one’s soul; where both provide a depiction of some type of state the soul can reside, other than virtue and vice. Aristotle describes the soul having two parts, where reason and passion are ways in which the soul exists in; the state of character will be a one of virtue or, vice, continence or incontinence. The Ethics describes the soul existing in a state of hierarchy, where one can be governed by the dominate-rational side or the lower-passionate side. By these two states the soul will engage in activity, that will be in accordance with virtue. “[T]hat one element in the soul is irrational and one has reason” (Nicomachean Ethics, 1.13 110a29). The soul is divided into two ways, the rational side and the irrational side. The irrational side is said to be that of emotions; for it is often known that emotions have the capacity to guide us but, with ill-considered reasons. Reason, accordingly, is the state most desirable, it is in this state that one will be able to

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