In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, ethical virtue is at the base of every Aristotle argument. Aristotle’s goal is to discover: what constitutes human excellence? A key position Aristotle takes in ethical virtue involves habit among human actions, “Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive them, and who are made perfect by habit.” (Nic.2.1.1103a23-25). Through this statement, Aristotle believes that humans do not have virtues by nature, which means humans cannot be born with virtue. However, nature equips humans with the potential to acquire virtue over time through social training and habituation. Aristotle’s concept is on the same grounds as Roger Bergman’s, author of Catholic Social …show more content…
the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle… which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.” (Nic.2.6.1107a1-4). Aristotle is saying that each person differs in how they must act to achieve the mean because everybody has their own intermediate through his doctrine of the mean. Bergman’s approach is slightly different as his service-learning idea sparks a response rather than an uninfluenced action. Bergman states that this reaction happens as “the students are expressing disequilibrium or dissonance between what they thought they knew and what they are finding to be true, and their emotional reactions to that dissonance.” (CSL 85). Many of Bergman’s idea are parallel with those of Aristotle’s besides their differences among the initiative action and reaction. Bergman’s reaction idea gives students a source to base their actions off, whereas Aristotle’s belief is that humans should perform an action in the sake of goodness in itself and not that of any other motives. Aristotle’s proactive actions provoke a greater good compared to Bergman’s reactive
Aristotle outlined his theory of Virtue Ethics in his book Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle focused his idea of ethics on agents rather than acts. His main idea is focused on the idea of human character- how can you be a better person? In fact, Aristotle once said: “For we are enquiring not in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, since otherwise our enquiry would be of no use.” Aristotle is given the credit for developing the idea of virtue ethics, but many of Plato's cardinal values influenced his ideas. Virtue Ethics is focused on the person's actions, not the consequences of that action. Aristotle believed if you had good moral values, then your actions would be "good" in theory. Rather than defining good actions,
“Can virtue be taught?”, was a question I struggled with when Meno ask Socrates. In Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle answers the question in a way I better understand. He believes that virtue can be taught and if you are taught good behavior you are excellent. He especially believes that the virtue of a human being is “being characteristic”, which helps me understand “What is virtue? “Virtue, according to Aristotle, are the characteristics that makes us either good or bad. Everything we do is not natural we learn what is moral and immoral by what we were taught. Somethings we believe are right might not be right to others, but just because we may think it is immoral does not make it necessarily wrong. Aristotle mentions that passion is presented in the soul virtue.
Abstract: Aristotle contributed greatly to the development of the human moralistic values by scripting the Nicomachean Ethics. This comprehensive book lays down the principles of virtuous behavior that can most certainly complete one's life while nurturing one's soul. In the thesis, we discuss the origin of the virtues and there relevance with respect to modern examples of real public figures.
Undercover police officers (UPO) act in a way that can be considered wrong in civilian life. The UPO’s actions cause harm and setbacks to people 's lives (Miller, Blackler & Alexandra 2006). These acts inevitably require the UPO to act immorally, causing genuine dilemmas for the UPO (Miller, Blackler & Alexandra 2006). However, committing immoral acts is a fundamental part of the UPO’s ability to apprehend criminals who would otherwise go undetected, and remove drugs from the street (Bronitt & Roche 2001). This essay will address the ethical issues of performing immoral acts as a UPO by using Nicomacean virtue ethics (NV) to rationalise the role of an UPO in betraying friends, and by using rule utilitarianism (RU) to overcome the moral
In book 1 of Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle highlights human activity and good and the idea of happiness. He shows that every human activity is some way in fact good with finishes (goals) that may be higher than one another. He relates this idea of good to political science. You can only create a narrow view of good since everyone needs and views differ. The overall good is said to be happiness but its definition is one that can differ based on a person. His idea is that we should focus on not the mental aspect of good but the one that can be achieved and can be worked for daily. Happiness can be seen to be the overall good, as most ”good” including intelligence or wealth stem from in fact being happy as it is what a person may aim for to
My girlfriend is pregnant. I have never felt so lost, without purpose, so blind and unable to see a clear path. Right now I am at the point where the action causes a reaction and I am living with the result. I do not know what took over me, but as some might put it love was a hard mistake. I have to explain everything, from the first moment I felt these emotions to the instant my seed was leaving my body into the being I adored and wanted a physical connection more than anything in the world. I find it extremely hard to sit down and tell someone my deepest feelings and hardships without knowing the person, but I feel this is a way to invoke these emotions in a way that they will never come out again. There is no doubt in what I did and did
life presumes that the individual therefore is not living the standard life being considered comfortable or normal in society. As previously stated there is no normal way to live life, as it is relative to the individual. While the jobless individual in the moment may not be satisfied with his current situation, he however may still have good relationships with family, friends, or coworkers that are there to help. The individual also did not choose to be jobless and we can also not assume that because of his lack of money that he does not have good morals and has made the right decisions prior to getting laid off. From this analysis we can see that a poor individual can still live a good life and by titling someone as poor does not necessarily mean they can not be happy or understand moral values.
A virtue ethicist Aristotle believed we should aim for eudemonia. Eudemonia is an ideology of happiness which would result in a life which is in perfect balance. Eudemonia include habits which include patience, temperance, courage etc. Virtues such as these are perfected so that as a society we can be perfectly happy. A virtue ethics approach would suggest that people suffering from an undefeatable illness would not be living a “eudemonia life”. If such a way existed that could improve the physical well‐ being of a person suffering from an illness, a virtue ethicist such as Aristotle would support this. However, if such a case where someone was incurably and terminally ill, Aristotle would hope that they would be brave enough to accept their
Aristotle wrote Nicomachean Ethics. "Chapter VIII" is about friendship. There are three main or basic forms of friendship. The first one is the friendship of good men, the only true friendship. The friendship of good men will help another friend strive for goodness. The second one is the friendship of pleasure. Friendship based on pleasure is where both people are drawn to each other's good looks and humor. The third one is the friendship of utility. Friendship based on utility tends to end abruptly because one friend's needs and benefits will change over time.
Aristotle discusses two interpretations of justice in Book V of his Nicomachean Ethics. He concludes that justice is either broad or narrow in sense - it is either lawfulness or equality. In the broader sense, a good citizen will obey the law because it is just.
Explain Aristotle’s theory that (moral) virtue is a mean or median. According to Aristotle, virtue is a mean. Virtue is a mean in a way that it is in between a lack and an excess of a certain property. Aristotle claims that the right way to virtue is to find the middle between the good and the bad of a particular action.
In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle describes that an object’s or efforts’ end purpose is what can be defined as good. Good can be defined in many ways and can determine the value of certain objects. This can be used to determine whether things in nature are present for the better or worse. When isolating nature from human interactions, there are many different ends to why certain things are present. Those ends can be used to determine whether or not certain objects are considered good in terms of Aristotle’s writing. Given this, it is possible that things in nature can be better or worse independently of human interests.
One objection a relativist could make to Aristotle’s virtue ethics is regarding what it counts as good or bad virtues since we have only have an idea about what they are. For instance, even if we know what fear is, there is not such a thing as the right or wrong thing to do. Courage looks different for everyone; other cultures have a different definition or set of rules on what counts as courageous. In ancient Greece, Sparta was a society known for their bravery and tactics of war, they lived a life with no fears of dying. Newborns were physically examined, if they were not in good conditions to survive, then they will drown in the river. This was culturally acceptable because it was how their civilization was form, but in our culture this
Aristotle, 384-322 B.C Deeper Understanding of Virtue Ethics Aristotle’s idea of virtue states that any action or even a feeling must be done at the “right time, in the right way, in the right amount, for the right reason- not too much and not too little” (442, The Moral of the Story, 2016). Strengths of Aristotle Virtue Ethics The preferment of Aristotle’s foundation of virtuous ethics are seen through the holistic view of human nature. By this it means that virtue ethics include emotion due to it being essential to the building of one’s character. Aristotle believes that there is a social concept of morality grounded within human nature’s foundation in which there are rational and irrational sides of conflict. Strengths of Aristotle Virtue
Originally, Aristotle describes how moral virtues are “engendered in us neither by nor contrary to nature; we are constituted by nature to receive them, but their full development in us is due to habit.” (31). Since humans are not born with any moral virtues, it becomes necessary for them to be developed through practicing actions. To further explain this idea, Aristotle compares the development of moral virtue to the development of other works and arts, describing that “people become builders by