What Makes People Virtuous

The cardinal virtues are seven virtues that help guide us to have good morality. Prudence is the first virtue and is having the common sense enough to think about what you are doing and what are the consequences. Temperance is finding moderation in your lifestyle. Justice includes traits like honesty, the ability to give-and-take, keeping promises, and so on. Fortitude includes two kinds of courage: the

One very important virtue includes prudence, the virtue that disposes us to see rightly, the way things are in the world around us, and to employ that truthful vision to act rightly. It enables

This extensive perception of virtue may include such precise virtue as courage, wisdom, or moderation, but it should be possible to offer a perfectly general description of virtue as a whole, the skill or ability to be fully human. It is impossible for each human being to have the same virtue because everyone created unequally.

The Virtue Theory, also know as Virtue Ethics, refers to the character of each person. This theory states that every person should try for excellence. The characteristics of each individual are made up from their environment that they are a part of. The theory would further suggest

Virtue is a quality that one possesses. But how can virtue be attained? Does someone simply decide they want to be virtuous? The question I am focusing on is as follows: Is avoiding evil sufficient to make one virtuous or must virtue be an active choice? Upon hearing this question I immediately thought “of course just avoiding evil alone doesn't make one virtuous”, but as I began to think more deeply about the question and to analyze examples from “Out Of The Silent Planet” by C.S. Lewis, it started to change what I thought. I do think that virtue is an active choice, however I also think avoiding evil is active choice.

            Virtues are usually taught through the eyes of the wise, also known as the elder. In the book The Lakota Way, by Joseph M. Marshall III, his tribe teaches virtues though story telling. The virtues of the Lakota tribe and those of my family are more similar then I had anticipated, although we do have our differences.

“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.

definition of virtue says it is a point between a deficiency and an excess of trait, and the point of

Virtue Theory relies heavily on the character of the person rather than the circumstances in which the individual acts. The virtue theory deemphasizes rules and regulations and instead focuses on the internal character of the act in question. The virtue theory is not concerned with the intentions of the act. Nor is it concerned primarily with the consequences of the act. Instead the virtue theory relies on moral virtues. If the individual is of good character or not is the primary concern with virtue theory. What is difficult to ascertain however, is the question of what constitutes character? How can one appropriate establish the contents of one's character? A person's character traits are the compesition of his character traits. These traits can either be good (virtuous) or bad (vices). In both instances, the virtue theory establishes and emphasized these two

Virtue Ethics is neither deontological nor teleological, since it is concerned with neither duty nor consequences, but rather the state of the person acting. Aristotle believed that once you are good, good actions will necessarily follow, and this belief is at the centre of Virtue Ethics. Rather than defining good actions, Virtue Ethics looks at good people and the qualities that make them good. The non-normative theory, although very effective in determining the morality of individuals, is particularly flawed when applied to whole societies. This weakness is largely due to its imprecision and abstraction; however, before these weaknesses can be considered, it is necessary to give an account of the theory itself.

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.

Virtue is, by definition, the excellent performance of an object’s function (Nic. Ethics, 1097b25-30). A thing’s function is determined by eliminating every ability that isn’t exclusive to what it is to be that thing (Nic. Ethics, 1097b30-1098a5). For example, a

Virtues are gained through nurture, and backing his thought, he explained that if we are born virtuously then we could not become bad. Yet, there are a number of bad people in the world. Aristotle saw that virtue and duty had a strong connection. This is because duty is an act in accordance with law, which enforces perfections. Since laws keep us in line, and our duty is to follow these laws, virtues come if you commit your duty. It is a cycle that repeats itself in the positive and the negative depending how we act. Because Aristotle was a Christian, he saw God as everlasting, and overall, see’s god as an important figure to live up to. Aristotle laid the framework to what would be the future of ethics. Although what he had reported would be found eventually, his views are what most believed as the golden rule, and future philosophers would just string off his ideas.

However , acting virtuous is the mean to becoming virtuous . There are conditions for virtue which consist of , having the appropriate inner state , taking pleasure in what your doing , doing it for certainty and firmness , and being aware of what you are dong . If a person performs a virtuous act without the right intentions the act is not longer virtuous . Virtue is acquired through habituation , making or becoming accustom or use to something . A person is not born with virtue , but by nature is capable of achieving and perfecting virtue . The way in which a person habituates virtue is by practicing virtuous acts and initiating virtue at a young age .

Another part of Aristotles' theory includes the idea of virtue. From my understanding, Virtue of character has a lot to do with our actions. It looks at what makes us do what we do. He explains, “Virtue, then, is of two sorts, virtue of thought and virtue of character” (Aristotle 18). In order to reach eudaimonia, we have to act virtuously. That is done by doing the right thing and knowing that you are doing it. Virtue of character is something that we do not automatically just have. It is something that we have to work on and practice. With practice, right actions will become habits. The virtuous person is someone who does not have to think about what the right thing to do is, they just do it.