Social Virtues

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Social Virtues

What is being Social, and what virtues do you need to possess to become sociable? Throughout your life you are going to being interacting, and communicating with just about everyone who is living around you and working with you. In my paper I am going to be talking about some of the major virtues you will need to acquire to become a ethically wise and social person according to the three leading ethical philosophers; Aristotle, Kant, and Mills. I chose this topic because I think one of the biggest faults that I have is really not being that social to everyone. I also chose this topic because and a communication major I can learn from all the ideas that I will be reading and experiencing. One of the most powerful thoughts that you must possess when dealing with others basically comes down to the all mighty Golden Rule, "Do to others as you want others to do to you."

Aristotle discusses that a person with good character has virtue. These virtuous characteristics only come from experience, training, and the ability of always doing good. One of the virtues that Aristotle talks about which deal with the social virtues is the virtue of Friendliness. Friendliness deals with treating everyone equally and with the thought of good in mind when it comes to friends, enemies, old acquaintances, and family. I think that one of the major issues that Aristotle talks about is the meaning of happiness. A good definition of friendliness that I came up with is the transferring of one's happiness to another. Friendliness is all about passing on a part of your happiness to someone that you meet. A good example of this is when you are walking some where and you pass someone that you don't even know ...

... middle of paper ...

...n amount of days to live because it will bring happiness to him as well as to others. Truth in this situation can be slightly adjusted due to the amount of pain that this child would have if you told him the facts.

After reading these three different idealists you can insert the same rule into each theory. The Golden Rule is a very powerful ideal to live off of. When it comes to all of the social virtues if you can keep the Golden rule in the back of your head there is no possible way that you could not gather the virtues that you need. When it comes to making ethical decisions you always have to factor in what your actions are producing, you actions should always produce the good in your life as well as the lives of others. Friendliness, Truth, and trust are some of the basic virtues that you should posses if you want to be an ethical and socialable person.

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