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Two virtues that I believe are important to live a flourish or successful life in Aristotle’s sense is to have courage and humility. An intemperate individual would display too much courage and will behave carelessly. An insensible would display too little courage and appear as a coward (Mosser, 2013, Section 6.1). Humility is a great trait to have to be successful in life. A person must be honest with themselves to know their faults and improve upon them, as well as knowing when to lay pride to the side and accept help and/or constructive criticism.
In order for these virtues to be enabled to fulfill their possessor’s life one “must have a prima facie plausibility with respect to the standard list of virtues” (Hursthouse, R. 1999). According to Aristotle, virtue is a disposition to act the right way, which is learned through practice at a young age. He believes that we all are born with the potential to be morally virtuous, but it is only by our actions in doing the right things that we become virtuous (Aristotle, 1931).
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This is when one seems as if they are more important than anything other than themselves and has no desire to ask others for help. However, this virtue can be “natural and necessary for self-preservation” (Najar, I. 2012). Humility can also generate social affairs. Humility falls into being honest with one self and they are aware of their strength and weaknesses.
In our main textbook, Aristotle presents a soldier in battle to describe a
He stated, “So virtue is a provisional disposition… virtue is a mean; but in respect of what is right and what is right and best, it is an extreme (Aristotle, 42).” Here Aristotle explains that moral virtue is determined by reason and that it avoids the states of too much, excess, or too little, deficiency. He believes that our soul is the principle of living because it is inside of us. Therefore, for Aristotle the soul was morally which is where we are given the right reason. He believes that, “there are two parts of the soul, one rational and one irrational (Aristotle, 145).” The rational part, which is how he believe we should do our actions upon, consists of possessing reason, part that can think and command, and intellectual virtues, which are virtues that come from time and experience. Courage is a moral virtue. When having courage, you either have too much fear, which makes you a coward, or you have too little fear, where you’d be considered rash or fool hardy. Generosity is also a moral virtue. When you are generous, you are either giving too much, which makes you profligate, or you are giving too little which would consider you as a stingy person. Moral virtues lead you to happiness because of their intermediate state that is by
According to Aristotle, a virtue is a state that makes something good, and in order for something to be good, it must fulfill its function well. The proper function of a human soul is to reason well. Aristotle says that there are two parts of the soul that correspond to different types of virtues: the appetitive part of the soul involves character virtues, while the rational part involves intellectual virtues. The character virtues allow one to deliberate and find the “golden mean” in a specific situation, while the intellectual virtues allow one to contemplate and seek the truth. A virtuous person is someone who maintains an appropriate balance of these two parts of the soul, which allows them to reason well in different types of situations.
Virtue ethics is a moral theory that was first developed by Aristotle. It suggests that humans are able to train their characters to acquire and exhibit particular virtues. As the individual has trained themselves to develop these virtues, in any given situation they are able to know the right thing to do. If everybody in society is able to do the same and develop these virtues, then a perfect community has been reached. In this essay, I shall argue that Aristotelian virtue ethics is an unsuccessful moral theory. Firstly, I shall analyse Aristotelian virtue ethics. I shall then consider various objections to Aristotle’s theory and evaluate his position by examining possible responses to these criticisms. I shall then conclude, showing why Aristotelian virtue ethics is an unpractical and thus an unsuccessful moral theory in reality.
In the 1939 movie classic, The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion is on a quest for the wizard to give him courage. He is afraid of everything and anything. However, in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle believes that courage is possible for all individuals. To gain courage one must have the inner qualities that will guide the courageous. The most important part of these qualities is to come to terms with death itself. Also, there are views of courage that are falsely perceived because they appear to be parallel with one another; nevertheless they are still very different.
In the 1939 movie classic, The Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion is on a quest for the wizard to give him courage. He is afraid of everything and anything. However, in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle believes that courage is possible for all individuals. To gain courage one must have the inner qualities that will guide the courageous. The most important out of these qualities is to come to terms with death itself. Also, there are views of courage that are falsely perceived because they appear to be parallel with one another; nevertheless they are still very different.
The virtues defined by Aristotle consist of two extremes or vices, the excess and the deficiency. The mean or the intermediate between the excess and the deficiency is the virtue. One virtue Aristotle explains is bravery, with its vices being rashness and cowardice. Each aspect of these is contrary to the others, meaning that the intermediate opposes the extreme. Similarly, one extreme opposes the mean and its other extreme. The implications of this are that the excess opposes the deficiency more than the mean. This causes the mean to sometimes resemble its neighboring extreme. Obtaining the mean involves the challenge of being excellent. The challenging part, however, is “doing it to the right person, in the right amount, at the right time, for the right end, and in the right way” (Nicomachean Ethics 1109a28-29:29). Fortunately, one can steer themselves to the mean if one is conscious of the extreme they are naturally inclined to go towards. Since everybody is uniquely different the means by which one steers themselves in the right direction is different for each individual. In addition, Aristotle names three requirements for an action to be a virtue. First one must be cons...
According to Aristotle, there are two types of virtue. These are: intellectual and moral virtue. Intellectual virtue stems from growth and teaching. In order to be intellectually virtuous one must have a great amount of experience and have allocated a great amount of time in studying whatever task it is they are looking to be virtuous in. On the other hand, moral virtue is given birth through habit. It is not an object that we are just born with it. Moral virtue originates from constant repetition.
In Book II, Aristotle makes a distinction between two types of virtues; those which are considered ethical and those which are considered intellectual. Ethical virtues deal with actions of courage, generosity, and moderation. Intellectual virtues deal with wisdom and contemplation. Ethical virtues are created through habitual actions. Aristotle says that humans are not born with a natural capacity for virtue. He believes that education and cultivation as youth by one’s parents are pivotal in setting up humans’ ability in making virtuous acts habitual. He feels that humans have to perform virtuous actions as much as possible and through this humans can make a step in becoming virtuous. Aristotle also states that ethical virtues have to be attended by pleasure. He believes that humans cannot be pained when committing a virtuous action. If a human is pained by an action then it is not considered virtuous.
Aristotle defines virtue (also known as excellence) of humankind as living in accordance with reason in the best kind of way. Simply put, doing what is characteristic of a thing to do. He argues that our reasoning, which is the foundation for our virtues, derives from habit and not from nature.
He claims that virtue of thought is taught and that virtue of character is habitually learnt. Either way, virtues do not “arise in us naturally” (216, 1103a20). He argues that humans have the capacities for virtues, but they must act on them (216, 1103a30). Thus, a person must learn to use the capability of being virtuous, meaning someone needs to teach them those virtues (217, 1103a10). To be virtuous, it is not just the action that matters, but the reason behind the action too. Aristotle says that a person should be consciously acting virtuous because this would result in him living a happy life (221, 1105a30). This takes time and a person must constantly repeat these actions to achieve the end goal of being virtuous (221,
Aristotle, argued that he could not judge a person on the basis of one example and wanted to look at the whole over time. Additionally he argued virtue was found between the extremes of each characteristic. Balance between the extremes of emotion was his main concern (Manning and Stroud 59). Virtue ethics requires one to strive for excellence, a process that happens over a long period of time. It includes learning about ethics, struggling with them, and eventually living ethically (Class
Interest is sparked in this area that Aristotle writes of because there is a natural need for Ethics in human life. John K. Roth states, “Aristotle assumes that all things, human beings included, have a good, a purpose or end, which it is their nature to fulfill”. This helps one understand Aristotle’s way of thinking, and provides insight to the basis of his theories. A common theory explored by Aristotle is the Ethics of Virtues, and how to practice them. A theory included in Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics is the unity of all the virtues, and in order to be virtuous, one must exhibit all the virtues. One of these virtues being practical wisdom, or Phronesis.
In Chesterton's short story called "A Defense of Humility", He states, "Humility is luxurious art of reducing ourselves to a point, not to a small thing or large one, but a thing with no size at all, so that to it all the cosmic things are what they really of immeasurable stature." Humility is an important characteristic that one should have. When one looks at other people first before themselves, they have Humility. By one realizing their own insignificance in comparison to other people will show that his is caring or considerate not selfish or prideful. Having humility shows the world just how humble one's state of mind may be.
To start this section on moral virtue, Aristotle begins by showing that intellectual virtue can be caused by education. There are also moral virtues that are developed based on habits in someone’s life. These moral habits are developed by humans and we do not know them until we act on them. We need to have experience in order to experience them. Aristotle gives an example of building a house. We do not know how to build until we actually have done it correctly. We need to be put in a habit to practice moral virtues from a young age in life. He then continues by saying that these are meant to make us good. We need to look at our actions in order to see what is just and worthy. With this, all virtues are somewhere between excess and deficiency.
The real intelligent people are people who confess with their own mistakes and comply with others’ advice. Moreover, they will accept to improve themselves. For example, when you make some mistakes, you cannot only say sorry. However, you have to sincerely show that you try to solve the problem, so it makes others to feel that you are really confessing with your mistakes. Some proud people cannot admit their mistakes, and do not listen to others’ reprimand. It means that they obstruct themselves from the others’ good will, so it leads them to repeat the same mistakes because they do not want to solve the problem. Moreover, for instance, if some well-wishers try to caution a guy that he does something wrong, but the guy does not listen to their warning. Hence, they do not try for the second time to tell this guy about his mistakes. It means that the guy does not admit his fault, and no one else wants to warn him