Aristotle's Virtue Ethics - PHILO-notes

iris totals virtue ethics iris totals virtue ethics can be gleaned from his seminal word titled nicomachean ethics this book is undoubtedly the first systematic study of ethics in western civilization in this book aristotle offers principles of conduct that would guide humans in attaining the good life it is worthwhile to begin our discussion of aristotle's virtue ethics by contrasting it with plato's take on ethics as is well known plato following his master socrates believed that the moral evaluations of daily life presuppose a good life which is independent of experience personality and circumstances aristotle rejected this view for aristotle moral principles are imminent in our daily activities and can be discovered only through a careful study of them it is for this reason that aristotle begins his ethical inquiry with an empirical study of what it is that people fundamentally desire aristotle argues that what people fundamentally desire is happiness or eudaimonia and aristotle believes that happiness or eudaimonia is the ultimate human good however aristotle warns that people's opinions about the concept of happiness considerably vary now if we recall the central question in plato and socrates's ethics is what kind of life should one live aristotle followed this line of questioning in his nicomachean ethics as we can see just as plato and socrates aristotle was also concerned about the good life however instead of asking about how should one live aristotle was more concerned about the nature of the good life thus aristotle in effect asked the question what is the nature of happiness or what does happiness consist in it must be noted that aristotle did not just ask about the nature of happiness in nicomachean ethics he also raised the question concerning the conditions of its attainment which eventually led aristotle to the discussion of virtue aristotle's virtue ethics therefore is ultimately tied to a full understanding of the nature of happiness as humanity's ultimate goal as well as the concept of virtue as a virtue theorist aristotle's concern therefore is not only about right and wrong but with virtues like courage and cowardice wisdom and ignorance justice and injustice weakness of character or strength of character from this discussion we can now draw two major principles that will guide us in understanding aristotle's virtue ethics namely eudaimonia and virtue and so let us now turn our discussion to these concepts please take note that the following discussion will focus on how aristotle develops a concept of eudaimonia that appeals to a conception of human nature and the way in which aristotle develops an account of virtue that can show the idea that the life of virtue is a life of eudaimonia as is well known socrates understands virtue as the major source of happiness plato continued this tradition and argued that moral virtue is vital to the rational soul of man although aristotle followed socrates and plato's agenda his concept of happiness differs from socrates and plato's because for aristotle happiness consists only in virtuous activity happiness which most of aristotle's interpreters call eudaimonia is the ultimate end of human life this happiness or the ultimate end is genuinely desired for its own sake or without qualification so actions which precede this end are the most valuable and cannot be superseded by any actions driven by ordinary kinds of ants of course actions which result in honor wealth and power is definitely part of man's inclination to seek for happiness as pleasure but unfortunately this could not be the end which offers true happiness like cudamonia pleasure is also good that is why aristotle does not condemn man for desiring pleasure because it is a significant part of human flourishing but for aristotle the desire and actions that lead to pleasure only presuppose limited value since its end is temporary hence the satisfaction that one gets from these actions cannot be truly called happiness for aristotle these actions which only lead humans into the pit of two opposing vices either excess or deficiency drive them away from the ultimate end hence for aristotle only virtuous acts can lead to true happiness virtue is defined as a behavior showing high moral standards or the general quality of goodness in a person an example of this is the virtue of patience or truthfulness following aristotle the encyclopedia philosophy second edition defines virtue as the opposite of vice vice in this context should not be literally understood within the specific context of social vices like drug addiction excessive cigarette smoking and gambling rather according to aristotle vices are the two extremes of the spectrum one is the excess and the other is the deficiency it is for this reason that aristotle claims that virtues are the mean or the middle ground between the excess at the one side and the deficiency at the other for instance if a moral agent maintains patience or good temper and rejects irascibility or lack of spirit then he is said to have possessed virtue thus for aristotle virtues categorically serve as the essential elements of man's moral behavior as we can see the central concept in aristotle's virtue ethics is that virtue or the mean is the key to happiness and so here's a table that will help us understand the relation between virtue and vices in the aristotelian sense now let us continue our discussion of virtue as good habit the formation of a moral virtue is essential to aristotle ethics this is due to the fact that a moral asian can only attain happiness by being consistently living a good life or acting habitually in accordance with the good thus a good habit is instrumental to the development of virtue because it is considered to be the consistent pattern of doing virtuous actions aristotle rights we are adopted by nature to receive these virtues and are made perfect by habit in this sense though virtue is already part of our natural inclination human being still needs the habit of doing good for him to become virtuous what we must do then is to constantly practice doing virtuous acts to develop a habit for instance we acquire the verge of patience by repeatedly integrating it into our deliberate actions or by being constantly patient in similar way we can obtain the virtue of courage by maintaining it within the purview of the mean while avoiding rashness and cowardice therefore our actions can only be morally good and right if there is a habitual practice of virtues this is to say that to eventually maintain these moral actions which lead us to attain authentic happiness the formation of good habits is a requisite the formation of virtue or good habit has two stages first the habit of contemplation or the education of thought for the formation of intellectual virtue and second the habit of the actual practice of moral virtue on the one hand the habit of contemplation is a matter of constantly acquiring knowledge and using one's mind in the right way that leads to the habitual exercise of virtue through the habit of education of thought the state of character is constituted by the stable equilibrium of the soul this is to say that the state of character which shapes moral virtue primarily requires proper mental activity aside from the actual performance of moral action in other words before we can actually practice virtue we have to think about practicing virtue all the time on the other hand the habitual actual practice of virtue presupposes that every human being has brought out the contemplated understanding of virtue into actions in other words we put into practice what the mind thinks in addition the putting into practice of this understanding should be done consistently so that it would lead to the formation of good habit true enough virtue is defined as a behavior showing high moral standards or a good moral quality or the general quality of goodness in a person but for aristotle we should push this further by developing a habit of doing good all the time in summary we can say that aristotle's virtue ethics is built around the premise that humans should aim to achieve excellent character in other words for aristotle humans should become ethical individuals and aristotle construes ethical individuals as having virtuous character ethicae arete in greek for aristotle an excellent character is the precondition for attaining happiness or eudaimonia which has already mentioned is the ultimate goal of aristotle's virtue ethics and by focusing on happiness or eudaimonia the shape of life as a whole becomes central to his ethical theory this explains why as already pointed out in this discussion the key question in aristotle's virtue ethics is what sort of life human beings should live thus in the final analysis practical virtues are the characteristics that humans need to develop to attain happiness however these practical virtues must be displayed in action for humans to truly attain happiness you

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Length: 14min 33sec (873 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 07 2020