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Virtue In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

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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

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