Question

What is a virtue according to Aristotle, and what is its relation to the vices? Discuss an example of the virtues and its related vices. discuss how Aristotle might think about the moral problem where a train is barreling down a track with people tied to it. In particular, how would Aristotle analyze the situation where we must choose between flipping the switch when one person is tied to the one track, and five people are tied to the other track.

Answer 1

• Virtue is a disposition to behave in the right manner, which is inculcated from a young age. A person with the virtue of courage, for instance, will not only show confidence in the face of fear, but will think of this courage as a good thing. Behaving courageously will make the virtuous person happy and will be one part of living a generally good life. By contrast, a person who has been poorly brought up and exhibits the vice of cowardice will find happiness in the avoidance of danger and thus will have an imperfect view of the good life.
• According to Aristotle, virtue is something learned through constant practice that begins at a young age.
• Virtue, according to Aristotle, is a disposition to act in a particular manner, but it is not a subconscious or a "natural" disposition. Rather, it is a carefully, consciously, and rationally inculcated habit that is done for its own sake.
• For example, an honest person is one who inculcated the habit of honesty because he prizes honesty for its own sake, since honesty is an excellence of the human soul. The "careful, conscious, and rational" aspect is especially important because some people may naturally be generous, for example, but that is not virtue since they are not acting rationally but are acting according to their natural impulse. This is a problem for Aristotle because virtuous action cannot be done unreflectively. One can only classify an action as virtuous if it is done so consciously, rationally, and voluntarily.
• According to Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics, and excess of virtue is a vice. Aristotle proposed the theory of the mean. Virtues should be practiced in the right degree of proportion otherwise they are not virtues.
  
• Aristotle defined vice and virtue as: vice is an excess or deficiency of virtue, and virtue is the mean between two accompanying vices that exists within a “sphere”.
• For example, in the sphere of “getting and spending”, “charity” is the virtuous mean (the balance) between “greed” and “wasteful extravagance”. If we inherit a fortune, this simple theory tells us that virtue isn’t found in hoarding or wasteful spending, but in a charitable moderation. Thus, if we can define a sphere of action, vice, or virtue we can use this model to fill in the blanks and detect the correct moral behavior.
• Trolley dilemma-Aristotle, I guess, would just say, do the courageous thing, or the generous thing, or the witty thing.Virtue theory is (intentionally) open-ended and detail-driven. It would say that right thing to do in each case is what a virtuous person would recognize as the right thing to do, given the specific details of the case. Personally, I think the virtuous person would say it is morally required to switch the track in that case and morally wrong to push someone to stop the trolley in the other case. In part, that's because a virtuous person will recognize that the agent in the 'push' case is not justified in believing that it will work to save 5 people (hence it risks killing 6), while she is justified in believing that switching the track will save 5 at the cost of 1.