Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Aristotle’s view of virtue
Aristotle’s view of virtue
What does virtue mean to Aristotle
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Essay
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. Each person in a regime has a goal and many people work together to create some sort of end. A proper regime will try and help the citizens of the polis to create a virtuous and happy end. This is done through different regimes that can be formed depending on the elements of that polis and the citizens within the city. It is mentioned that there is an idea that one should live as one wants as that would be true freedom, which would bring some sort of true happiness. Every want that someone or
…show more content…
This is because we as people comprehend more as to what is happening and we have different capabilities as a result. It is also important that people should always be acting to achieve this virtuous life and not be passive. If one is passive then they will not be able to achieve this kind of state. Therefore it is important that people work every day to accomplish that goal and sometimes they will be tested with decisions. These decisions will either test them to have short lasting virtuous decisions that will only give them pleasure for a short time period or they can go and strive to achieve more than a short lasting pleasure or virtue. The harder something is to achieve the more gratification one will achieve as a
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...
Aristotle believes that happiness rests within an absolutely final and self-sufficient end. The reasoning behind this theory is that every man is striving for some end, and every action he does must be due to this desire to reach this final end. He believes that in order for a man to be happy, he must live an active life of virtue, for this will in turn bring him closer to the final end. Although some may believe that these actions that the man chooses to take is what creates happiness, Aristotle believes that these actions are just a mere part of the striving toward the final end. I believe that Aristotle’s great-souled man is the highest virtue of character; His actions are never too extreme and he is appropriate in all his manners. The magnanimous person is within the intermediate state of character. “The deficient person is pusillanimous, and the person who goes to excess is vain” (§35). The magnanimous person surrounds himself with great things. The great things occurs when “he receives great honors from excellent pe...
From examining ends and goods, Aristotle formulates eudaimonia. He questions “what is the highest of all the goods achievable in action?” (Shafer-Landau 2013, 616). Aristotle argues that the majority of people agree that the highest good is achieving happiness, however, they disagree over what happiness actually is, for example, some claim t...
Aristotle and the Book of Nicomanchean Ethics In Book I of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states that the ultimate human goal or end is happiness. Aristotle describes the steps required for humans to obtain happiness. Aristotle states that activity is an important requirement for happiness. He states that a happy person cannot be inactive.
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).
At some point in everyone’s life, they have probably wondered what their purpose is, what they’re meant to do or accomplish during their time on Earth. In his writing, Physics, Aristotle gives four causes that are responsible for that which is by nature, with the final cause, the purpose of a thing, being the considered the chief cause. With this principle in mind, Aristotle ponders what the final causes are for both man and for the state in the Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle applies the doctrine of final causality to his teachings by claiming that the final cause for man is happiness, attainable through virtue, and the telos of the state is to produce and foster virtuous citizens.
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).
1.) Aristotle begins by claiming that the highest good is happiness (198, 1095a20). In order to achieve this happiness, one must live by acting well. The highest good also needs to be complete within itself, Aristotle claims that, “happiness more than anything else seems complete without qualification, since we always…choose it because of itself, never because of something else (204, 1097b1). Therefore, Aristotle is claiming that we choose things and other virtues for the end goal of happiness. Aristotle goes on to define happiness as a self-sufficient life that actively tries to pursue reason (205, 1098a5). For a human, happiness is the soul pursuing reason and trying to apply this reason in every single facet of life (206, 1098a10). So, a virtuous life must contain happiness, which Aristotle defines as the soul using reason. Next, Aristotle explains that there are certain types of goods and that “the goods of the soul are said to be goods to the fullest extent…” (207, 1098b15). A person who is truly virtuous will live a life that nourishes their soul. Aristotle is saying “that the happy person lives well and does well…the end
Aristotle’s Strength is his belief in moderation (Book480). Aristotle believes the ultimate goal in life is to be happy and people will do what makes them happy. He defined the highest good as “eudaimonia” (Chaffee 477). To a...
Whether in relation to action or knowledge, all things aim at some good. In Ethics, the father of political theory, Aristotle, initially establishes that the good is the best, most archicteonic, and choiceworthy end. He subsequently states that both the many and the refined concur that the highest of all goods related to action is happiness, essentially marking happiness as the definitive end. Ultimately, because the good is in relation to what something is, he addresses and elucidates on eleven moral virtues from the irrational part of the soul and five intellectual virtues derived from the rational part of the soul; these virtues are supposed to bring one closer to the good. Seemingly the magnanimousness or great-souledness (one of
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...
To the modern reader, Aristotle's views on astronomy, as presented in Metaphysics, Physics, De Caelo (On the Heavens) and Simplicius' Commentary, will most likely seem very bizarre, as they are based more on a priori philosophical speculation than empirical observation. Although Aristotle acknowledged the importance of "scientific" astronomy - the study of the positions, distances and motions of the stars - he nevertheless treated astronomy in the abstract, linking it to his overall philosophical world picture. As a result, the modern distinction between physics and metaphysics is not present in Aristotle, and in order to fully appreciate him we must try to abandon this pre-conception. Aristotle argued that the universe is spherical and finite. Spherical, because that is the most perfect shape; finite, because it has a center, viz. the center of the earth, and a body with a center cannot be infinite. He believed that the earth, too, is a sphere. It is relatively small compared to the stars, and in contrast to the celestial bodies, always at rest. For one of his proofs of this latter point, he referred to an empirically testable fact: if the earth were in motion, an observer on it would see the fixed stars as moving, just as he now observes the planets as moving, that is from a stationary earth. However, since this is not the case, the earth must be at rest. To prove that the earth is a sphere, he produced the argument that all earthly substances move towards the center, and thus would eventually have to form a sphere.
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
Aristotle seems to have two intentions in his Nicomachean Ethics Book 1. Those being, to make a practical guide to ethical living in a way that one could actually implement in his own life, and more importantly, to find the highest possible good. The book starts by analyzing human action, by saying that all human actions, “Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice…” will seek an end, or a goal. “…and so the good has been aptly described as that at which everything aims.” (Crisp:1.1 I094a) He claims that the end is an end because it is good, so much that he refers to this end as the “good” and uses the terms interchangeably throughout the publishing. The Greek term for this is “telos”, which is defined as
This continuing prosperity for the sake of a good life is what Aristotle believes the goal of the ideal state should be. Aristotle said ¡§that life is best, both for the individuals and for the cities, which has virtue sufficiently supported by material wealth to enable it to perform the action that virtue calls for it¡¨. He feels that since man, as individuals, strives for happiness, then man, as a collective group, should strive for the happiness of the state. Since it is now established what the ideal state should aim for, we may begin at what and by the Ideal State is composed.