Question

In what ways do you agree or disagree with Aristotle’s virtue ethics? What reasons can you give that might convince other reasonable people to agree with you? (<800 words, 20 points

Answer 1

A virtuous person is someone who performs the distinctive activity of being human well. ... Aristotle defines moral virtue as a disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices.The moral theory of Aristotle, like that of Plato, focuses on virtue, recommending the virtuous way of life by its relation to happiness. ... Aristotle opens the first book of the Nicomachean Ethics by positing some one supreme good as the aim of human actions, investigations, and crafts The idea of the mean should not be taken literally. It merely points to a structural feature of excellence, being in-between opposite vices. Not all actions and passions admit of mean. For example, spite, envy, theft, murder, or adultery do not admit of a mean because they are by nature extremes.Being virtuous requires three things: 1) that a person knows what he is doing, b) that he intends to do what is he is doing and that he intends it for its own sake, and c) that he acts with certainty and firmness. Virtues and vices are not feelings. They are not acquired without deliberate choice