Aristotle Virtue

If you were to ask someone what their definition of a happy life would be, they would probably give you an answer like, “having fun.” This is completely untrue in Aristotle’s terms. According to Aristotle, for a man to lead a happy life he must learn each of the intellectual virtues, and practice each of the moral virtues throughout his life. These moral virtues are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, and wisdom. With so many virtues to constantly abide by, a man cannot know if he has led a happy life until his life is nearly finished. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’ Connor, the question is

Aristotle believes that there are two kinds of virtue, one being intellectual and the other being moral virtue. He states that Intellectual virtue comes from being taught meaning we’re not born with it. Moral virtue on the other hand we develop as we grow and gain an understanding of life. “The stone which by nature moves downwards cannot be habituated to move upwards, not even if one tries to train it by throwing it up ten thousand times” (N.E. II.1) Right there he is talking about how if you are designed to do one thing, it is impossible to do the opposite no matter how hard you force it. He talks about how we gain our virtues by practicing them and using them on a regular basis. That is how we learn

Although, as Aristotle believes, everything we do in our life leads to some good, he makes it clear that some goods are subordinate to others, and that the greatest good is happiness. He believes that the knowledge of this good carries weight for our way of life, and makes us better able, like archers who have a target to aim at, to hit the right mark (Aristotle 2). To possess the ability to achieve this ultimate end; however, we must first have some sort of understanding as to what happiness is. The definition of happiness typically varies from person to person, some think it’s pleasure or something found in someone you love, others believe it lies in wealth and success, but Aristotle defines it as

In our society today, we are mostly challenged by two questions: ‘is it right to do this or that? And ‘how should I be living in society?’(Bessant, 2009). Similar questions were greatly discussed in the history by our ancestors in their philosophical discussions. The most ancient and long-lasting literature on moral principles and ethics were described by Greek philosopher Aristotle. He had an excellent command on various subjects ranging from sciences to mathematics and philosophy. He was also a student of a famous philosopher. His most important study on ethics, personal morality and virtues is ‘The Nicomachean Ethics’, which has been greatly influencing works of literature in ethics and heavily read for centuries, is believed to be

Therefore, happiness is the highest act of virtue because it is the only end in every action we preform. A person that preforms an action for the sake of being happy requires many steps to eventually reach the stage of happiness. When there are steps involved to reach happiness, then the action is preformed for the sake of something else and not in itself. Such as a person who wants to eat healthier because their end motive is to be happy. Therefore, the action is not preformed for the sake of just to eat healthy but to reach happiness. However, to become virtuous, a person will preform actions that make them virtuous with a firm and unchangeable character. It is a skill that is made through a habit, Aristotle states, “legislators make the citizens good by preforming habits in them”(NE, P.23), such as preforming acts of bravery. But, a brave person needs to find a balance because being too brave will lead to excess

Aristotle believes that happiness is an activity “in accord with virtue.” Happiness is in accord with the most excellent virtue. All men agreed that happiness is to “live well”, but Aristotle expands this further into a whole

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle define happiness as the ‘highest good’. Aristotle states that everyone agrees that this highest good is happiness, but often disagree about what happiness really is. Many would believe that happiness is gained from material possessions, wealth or high social status, but Aristotle states that this is not the highest good. Aristotle believed that to obtain happiness, we must have virtue. Virtue is defined as a state of being and acting in the correct manner with high moral standards, neither acting in

The philosophy of virtue ethics, which primarily deals with the ways in which a person should live, has puzzled philosophers from the beginning of time. There are many contrasting interpretations regarding how one should live his or her life in the best way possible. It is in my opinion that the Greeks, especially Aristotle, have exhibited the most logical explanation of how to live the "good life". The following paper will attempt to offer a detailed understanding of Aristotle's reasoning relating to his theory of virtue ethics.

“Happiness is the highest good, being a realization and perfect practice of virtue, which some can attain, while others have little or none of it...” (Aristotle) . The relationship between virtue and happiness have an close and personal relationship . Virtue is necessary for eudaimonia but it is not sufficient for eudaimonia . Aristotle believes that virtue is most important to eudaimonia , because eudaimonia involves activity which is exhibiting excellence or virtue . Eudaimonia will be gained when something is developed properly . To exhibit something well one must do it with excellence ; therefore eudaimonia is dependent on virtue . In order to live a happy life a person must be virtuous , and in order to be virtuous someone must act in the right way and live by the right sort of reasons . For

Understanding Socrates idea of what virtue is may not be difficult because he distinctively believed “knowledge is virtue” hoever the type of knowledge expected from the virtuous person it determined by ones self. Socrates gives no explict evidence on being a person of virtue. While to the naked eye this concept may seem simple it is complex. There is no specific knowledge that leads to virtue, it is based off the knowledge a person develops when they live life with the intention of being a good person and try to live a good life (Solomon, Haggins 47). Experiences differ from person to person and each experience a person has can posiively or negiively affect them and eaach time they have an experience wether positive or negitive they gain

One of the most important things that the famous philosopher, Aristotle, argued about was the topic of virtue. This was also a very important issue that his teacher, Plato, argued about on numerous occasions. But, the two of these men had very different ideas on what virtue was and how it was obtained, and Aristotle had a completely different moral philosophy.

According to Aristotle, happiness and virtue are tied together. For a person to be “good” they must actively practice virtue, and happiness is considered to be the highest good. Aristotle says that the function of a human is to lead a good life, so people aim to be happy. For people to be happy, they must cultivate habits that give them the “right” character. When a person reacts to a certain situation with the right attitude and outlook, they are virtuous. Both virtue and happiness consist of constant activity, and something being at its best state. Aristotle points out a difference between living and living well, and for one to live well, they must practice the right actions and behaviors, ones that can only be done by virtuous people. By living a virtuous life, one gives their life meaning and value.

According to Aristotle virtue is achieving excellence of the soul. (1) For man to become virtuous they must build habits that model virtuous behavior. Aristotle believed that moral virtue forms through habit and no one is born virtuous. Under this premise virtue is both learned and practiced through our behaviors. When one acts in a moral and virtuous way they become more virtuous, the opposite is true also that if one acts in a non-virtuous way they will learn to become less virtuous. To be virtuous you also must maintain a balance which is called the mean.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle said happiness is the value and reason for every good thing, so happiness is deserving of respect. For Aristotle, happiness involves flourishing or prospering by striving for a purposeful life of excellence. Happiness depends not on a feeling, rather the whole about your moral character, and the ability to exercise proper temperance and suitable ethics over a period by virtue. In Politics, Aristotle explained that humanity does not gain virtue by possession of meaningless material substance, happiness is found with the people who are most refined in their thinking and character. According to Aristotle, bravery, unselfishness, intelligence, love, friendship, lawfulness, family relationships, political participation and citizenship are indispensable character traits for one to prosper and experience happiness.

Given the outline of Aristotle’s theory of moral virtue, I am left to conclude that Aristotle’s position is correct. Morality is obviously not innate, but clearly anyone with proper faculties of reasoning can achieve morality. Similarly we would not judge a baby on the actions it takes just as one would not judge the actions of an animal because the lack of reason strips the ability to achieve morality from the being under judgement; So to say that an animal or baby is gluttonous and therefor immoral makes no sense. We also know emotion to lack being inherently good or bad, even sadness can be good given that you act sad for the proper reasons in response to the proper conditions. I definitely agree that in most cases, what is virtuous is the mean between two vices and determined by the conditions underlying the situation. This is because the each action can be good or bad, and when a situation involves multiple conditions, it produces a range of mixtures of actions to be taken; some actions being more good or bad then others. For example, in war there are many conditions interplaying with one another; in instances of possible death, one must act courageous to overcome fear, but in the case of certain death one may employ cowardice. In both previous examples, one can argue that the action that followed was morally virtuous; in the first case, courage aided in warfare, while in the second, cowardice saved the man to fight another day.