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Principles of virtue ethics
Principles of virtue ethics
Principles of virtue ethics
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Teleology is the explanation that everything that exists has a purpose or a goal. The famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle, wrote about his theory of virtue ethics. Virtue ethics is about our moral decisions and behavior and how we acquire and develop them. What is our purpose in this life? What should our goals be?
Everything has a purpose of a goal. For example, an acorn has a goal to become an oak tree. What then would the purpose be of a human being? Aristotle believes the ultimate goal of human life is to be happy, and that lasting happiness can be achieved through virtue. Virtue is defined as behavior showing high moral standards. This happiness looks more specifically on an individual’s behavior and character. A virtuous person shows
courage, loyalty, honesty, and integrity. The goal for humanity is to be a virtuous person to give ourselves a sense of well-being. Through virtue we can fulfill our true purpose However, virtues must be acquired and be made into habits. We develop these habits by watching others. Humans are not born as good or bad, the habits they develop throughout their lifetime will define them as good or bad. This is why we must have virtuous leaders in society. People who can show us right from wrong and what to strive for. Aristotle says we must follow our reason and not let our appetite sway us one way or another. Being swayed away from a virtuous behavior will lead us to a vice or a wrong, bad behavior. A virtue has two extremes or vices. For example, a virtuous activity is to eat a healthy and balance meal, but one might be swayed to over eat while eating unhealthy. This is an example of a vice. The other vice would be to eat little to nothing at all while starving oneself of necessary nutrients. By eating healthy and balanced consistently, a good or virtuous habit is formed. Our purpose or goal in life should be to strive for virtuous behavior and character, and acquiring these virtues by observing virtuous leaders in our society. Life would be happier if it were comprised of all virtuous people. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”- Marcus Aurelius. Virtue ethics is about developing oneself throughout life to be virtuous by showing good moral decisions and character.
In Aristotle 's Nicomachean Ethics, the basic idea of virtue ethics is established. The most important points are that every action and decision that humans make is aimed at achieving the good or as Aristotle 's writes, “Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at the good... (Aristotle 1094a). Aristotle further explains that this good aimed for is happiness.
The ultimate end is what the masses strive for. Aristotle proposes that this universal good be thoroughly understood before continuing. All actions are to be built upon another in order to achieve this good; an end that is chosen for the sake of itself, we “choose [happiness] for its...
In consideration to Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle’s view of the great-souled man is that of an individual that represents happiness and obtains the five virtues: wisdom, justice, bravery, self-control, and the overall goodness within an individual (happiness). The magnanimous person is very complex and displays the proper virtues at the proper time, and in the proper way. In addition, the great-souled man accommodates to his surroundings where he is honorable but not boastful in his actions. Aristotle believes that it is only possible to attain happiness within a political organization because happiness represents living well without being concerned with others, they solely live for the truth and not approval.
When we discuss morality we know that it is a code of values that seem to guide our choices and actions. Choices and actions play a significant role in determining the purpose and course of a person’s life. In the case of “Jim and the Indians”, Jim faces a terrible dilemma to which any solution is morbid. On one hand, Jim can choose to ignore the captain’s suggestion and let the whole group of Indians be executed. Alternatively, he may decide upon sacrificing one Indian for the sake of saving the rest. Both options involve taking of person’s life. Regarding what should Jim do in this circumstance, there are two approaches according for Jim’s dilemma that should be examined. By looking into the Deontological moral theory and the moral theory of Consequentialism we can see what determines an action that is morally required.
From pursuing pleasure to avoiding pain, life seems to ultimately be about achieving happiness. However, how to define and obtain happiness has and continues to be a widely debated issue. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle gives his view on happiness. Aristotle focuses particularly on how reason, our rational capacity, should help us recognize and pursue what will lead to happiness and the good life.';(Cooley and Powell, 459) He refers to the soul as a part of the human body and what its role is in pursuing true happiness and reaching a desirable end. Aristotle defines good'; as that which everything aims.(Aristotle, 459) Humans have an insatiable need to achieve goodness and eventual happiness. Sometimes the end that people aim for is the activity they perform, and other times the end is something we attempt to achieve by means of that activity. Aristotle claims that there must be some end since everything cannot be means to something else.(Aristotle, 460) In this case, there would be nothing we would try to ultimately achieve and everything would be pointless. An ultimate end exists so that what we aim to achieve is attainable. Some people believe that the highest end is material and obvious (when a person is sick they seek health, and a poor person searches for wealth).
Aristotle argued that the goal of human beings is happiness, and that we achieve happiness when we fulfill our function. Therefore, it is necessary to determine what our function is. The function of a thing, or its telos, is what it alone can do, or what it can do best. Like the function of the eye is to see, Aristotle declared the human being as the "rational animal" whose function...
Aristotle begins his ethical account by saying that “every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and every choice, is thought to aim for some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim” (line 1094a1). Though some things might produce higher good than others, Aristotle looks for the highest good, which he says we must “desire for its own sake” and our actions are not decided on some other goal beyond this good itself (line 1094a20-25).[1] This highest good is then realized to be happiness (line 1095a16-20).
You wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, eat lunch, come home from work, eat dinner, get a pay check, pay bills and then go to bed only to start the cycle over and over again. What is the purpose of these repetitive cycles? Is it a way to fulfil our purpose in life or are these just motions that we carry out in order to survive? When most people would have a hard time answering these questions, a philosopher named Aristotle believed that all humans have the same purpose in life. He believed that everything we do in life is to fulfil one sole purpose – to achieve happiness. Could such a bold belief hold merit even thousands of years later especially when such topics are extremely subjective? In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, written about 350
In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he discusses the principles of virtue, choices and a desire for an end. In the 5th chapter of book 3, Aristotle gives a possible argument of someone who objects to his beliefs “But someone might argue as follows: ‘All Men seek what appears good to them, but they have no control over how things appear to them; the end appears different to different men” (1114b). Based on the objector’s generalization, he or she believes that all men strive to find the ultimate good, but they don't have the freedom or the wisdom to see things for what they truly are.
3. The greatest good that one can receive in one’s lifetime according to Aristotle is a life that is virtuous. Aristotle states that “the happy life is one in accordance with virtue and unimpeded, and that virtue is a mean, then the middling sort of life is best-the mean that is capable of being attained by each sort of individual.” 1295a36. This is also known as the Telos, where anything that we see has a some sort of end or goal. This varies among each and every person. A blacksmiths end will be much different from a shoemakers. This shows that each person must have some sort of different end goal in life.
It was Aristotle’s belief that everything, including humans, had a telos or goal in life. The end result or goal was said to be happiness or “eudaimonia”. He explained that eudaimonia was different for each person, and that each had a different idea of what it meant. Further, he said that people must do things in moderation, but at the same time do enough. The theory, of “the golden mean of moderation” was the basis to Aristotle's idea of the human telos and concluded that living a virtuous life must be the same for all people. Aristotle maintained that the natural human goal to be happy could only be achieved once each individual determined his/her goal. A person’s telos is would usually be what that individual alone can do best. Aristotle described the humans as "rational animals" whose telos was to reason. Accordingly, Aristotle thought that in order for humans to be happy, they would have to be able to reason, and to be governed by reason. If a person had difficulty behaving morally or with ethics, he was thought to be “imperfect”. Moral virtue, a principle of happiness, was the ability to evade extremes in behavior and further to find the mean between it and adequacy. Aristotle’s idea of an ideal state was one where the populous was able to practice eth...
This is also closely related to one’s telos, or life goal. Aristotle argued that walking a path towards one’s telos was the way to achieve eudaimonia. Along this path a person should take virtuous actions and strive for excellence (arête) to make the journey successful. This conveys Aristotle’s strong view that activity and action are both required for and are an integral part of eudaimonia.
Aristotle feels we have a rational capacity and the exercising of this capacity is the perfecting of our natures as human beings. For this reason, pleasure alone cannot establish human happiness, for pleasure is what animals seek and human beings have higher capacities than animals. The goal is to express our desires in ways that are appropriate to our natures as rational animals. Aristotle states that the most important factor in the effort to achieve happiness is to have a good moral character, what he calls complete virtue. In order to achieve the life of complete virtue, we need to make the right choices, and this involves keeping our eye on the future, on the ultimate result we want for our lives as a whole. We will not achieve happiness simply by enjoying the pleasures of the moment. We must live righteous and include behaviors in our life that help us do what is right and avoid what is wrong. It is not enough to think about doing the right thing, or even intend to do the right thing, we have to actually do it. Happiness can occupy the place of the chief good for which humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act must be independent of any outside help in satisfying one’s needs and final, that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else and it must be
Happiness is the ultimate goal for everyone in life. Aristotle's definition of " happiness is happiness is the activity of the soul in accord with perfect virtue. To become a better person, we must practice virtuous acts regularly. After a while, these acts will become a habit and so the virtuous acts. part of our every day life and the person will be leading a virtuous life.
Virtue ethics is a theory that deemphasizes rules, consequences and particular acts and places the focus on the kind of person who is acting. It is an individual based moral system and focuses on character traits. It does not factor in religion, society, or culture, but more so the individual’s choice in situations. This theory does not give a set of rules on what to do, but rather emphasizes the question, “How should one become a better person?” The focus of the theory is attempting to create good virtuous human beings. It does not put focus on the right and wrong actions, but the good and bad choices.