Question

Using an example of a particular virtue (other than courage) as a guide, expand on Aristotle's general definition of Virtue (given above) in 500-750 words.

Answer 1

"Happiness depends on ourselves." These golden words were told by Aristotle, He goes on to say that More than anybody else, happiness is the central purpose of human life and it is a big goal in itself.

Aristotle devotes more importance & space to the topic of happiness than any philosopher prior to the modern era.He goes on to tell that happiness depends on the cultivation and generation of virtue, his virtues are somewhat more individualistic.Aristotle was pretty convinced that a genuinely fulfilled & happy life needed the fulfillment of many range of conditions, including the physical as well as the mental well-being within an individual. Aristotle in this way introduced the idea of a science of happiness to a new field of knowledge.

Aristotles argument is that, the virtue is gained by maintaining the Mean, which is also known as the balance between two excesses. And according to Aristotle, the mean was a method of achieving virtue,

He goes ahead to tell that happiness is the highest of good and at the end of which all of our goals and activities are targeted at. All of our everyday activities tend to aim at a goal or end, though most of these ends are actually new openings toward other ends.

For example, we go for grocery shopping to buy food, but buying food is itself a means toward the end of eating well!

Eating well and healthily is also not just an end in itself but also a means to other ends. But he argues that, Only happiness is an end in withing itself, so it is the ultimate end at which all our activities and goals are targeted.

Aristotle goes ahead and defines the supreme good to be an activity of the rational soul in sync with the virtue. And the Virtue for the Greeks is equivalent to excellence.

For example: If a man has virtue as a flautist. And if he plays the flute well, As playing the flute is the distinct activity of a flautist.

So, the definition goes like, ‘A virtuous person is the one who performs the distinctive activity of being human well.’

For example: Rationality is humans distinctive activity, ie: It is the activity that distinguishes humans from plants and animals.He tells us that all living things have a nutritive soul, This governs the growth and nutrition aspects of the living things.

Humans and animals are kind of distinct from plants in having a sensitive soul. This soul is which governs locomotion and instinct. He goes on to tell that humans are distinct above all for having a rational soul. This rational soul also governs thought. Since humans rationality is their distinctive activity, its exercise is also the supreme good.

Aristotle goes about and defines the moral virtue for being a disposition or a trait to behave in the right way and also as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are the vices.

We tend to learn moral virtue primarily through habit and practice. We do not twnd to learn moral virtue through reasoning and instruction. According to aristotle,Virtue is a matter of having the appropriate attitude or motivation towards pain and pleasure.

For example, a coward will suffer due to fear in the face of danger, whereas a rash person will not suffer sufficient fear. And so, Aristotle lists the principle virtues along with their corresponding vice

Aristotle tells that, a virtuous person exhibits all of the virtues: they do not properly exist as distinct qualities but as different aspects of a persons virtuous life.

So, accordingly, We can only be held accountable for actions that we perform voluntarily and not for those cases which involve the physical compulsion/necessity or unavoidable ignorance.

He tells us that the best measure of moral judgment is the choice.Since choices are always made voluntarily by the means of rational deliberation and selection. We tend to always choose to aim/target at the good.But, humans often tend to be ignorant of what is good and end up aiming at some other apparent good instead, in fact a vice.

The word translation of virtue is “excellence.” Something has aretê(virtue) if it tends to perform its function well.

For example:let us say that, A good horseman,has the aretê(virtue) handling horses, wr can also take the example of, a good knife that has the aretê(virtue) of sharpness.

For the Ancient greeks, moral virtue was not essentially different from the other kinds of excellence. The Greek people do not have a defining concept of morality .

Moral virtue has been said to be be simply a matter of performing well in the function of being human. For the Greek people, the motivation or drive for being good is actually not based in a a set of moral rules or regulatioms.

But it is rather in the kind of striving after excellence that might make an athlete train more hard. Ethos is a greek word, from which the word ethics has been derived. This word, Ethos literally means “character,” and Aristotle’s ultimate aim and goal is to describe and analyse what qualities constitute an excellent character. We can summarize Aristitles Virtues in the following table :

SPHERE OF ACTION OR FEELING

EXCESS (VICE)

MEAN (VIRTUE)

DEFICIENCY (VICE)

1.Fear and confidence: Rashness | Courage| Cowardice

2.Pleasure and pain: Licentiousness |Temperance|Insensibility

3.Getting and spending (minor): Prodigality | Liberality | Illiberality

4.Getting and spending (major) :Vulgarity| Magnificence | Pettiness

5.Anger : Irascibility | Patience | Lack of spirit

6.Honor and dishonor (major): Vanity |Magnanimity |Pusillanimity

7.Honor and dishonor (minor): Ambition |Proper ambition | Unambitiousness

8.Self-expression : Boastfulness | Truthfulness | Understatement

9.Conversation : Buffoonery | Wittiness |Boorishness

10.Social conduct : Obsequiousness or flattery | | Friendliness | Cantankerousness

11.Shame : Shyness | Modesty | Shamelessness

12.Indignation : Envy | Righteous indignation | Malicious enjoyment

The lesson that can be learnt from Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean is that virtue, consists of finding a suitable middle ground between both the two extremes. Given, each virtue has two opposites.

For example :The opposite of courage is both cowardice and rashness. This idea explains that there are like two opposites for every virtue which goes against much of the gained wisdom of Aristotle’s time.

This idea tends to emphasize the necessity of moderation: Humans can only achieve virtue by finding a middle ground, and not by aiming for any of the both extremes.

But in this idea, the exact location of that middle ground is less obvious. Aristotle tells that his table represents only a rough approximation and that virtues which lie closer to one vice than another to different extents for varying humans.

The Table of Virtues which has been presented is not intended as a set of exact fixed rules to be apploed. It is contrary to this perception.

Aristotle argues that a truly virtuous human will naturally be having the drive to behave appropriately and will have no need of rules.

Aristotle is very much clear that humans arrive at the moral virtue primarily through practice and that the value like that of studying ethical texts (such as the one he has written) is limited.

For example: If we want to achieve excellence in rock climbing, it kind of helps to study the texts that tend to show us how to improve our technique, but we actually can’t make any significant improvement without getting on a rock wall and practicing.

The only way to become more virtuous is through practice. Humans can only become more courageous by making a point of facing down their very own fears, and humans can only become more patient by making a habit of controlling their anger.

Since this kind of practice, & not study, is the key to becoming virtuous, Aristotle goes ahead and takes a very strong interest in the educating the young.

Aristotle perceives that there is so much that we humans can do inorder to improve a nasty adult, and also that humans can more easily mold the virtuous youths by inculcating the required habits within them from a very young age.

He calls this happiness an “activity,” which also differentiates his very conception of happiness both from human modern conception of happiness and from virtue.

This is what Aristotle calls as a “disposition.” He goes ahead to tell that humans tend to think of happiness as being an emotional state. And hence as something that we are, rather than it being something that tend to we do.

The Greek word is translated as “happiness” also known as eudaimonia, and it is also known as “success” or “flourishing.”

These people who are ‘eudaimon’ are not in a particular emotional state, even as they are living successfully and happily. Aristotle told that While happiness is the activity of living well, virtue signifies the potential to live well.

A Human excelling in all of the given moral virtues is said to be fine and good. But this doesn’t ensure a humans happiness unless they tend to exercise those given virtues.

For example: Hence , Courageous people who never tend to test their courage by facing down fear actually have virtue, but they are not quiet happy.

Aristotle also illustrates this very distinction between the happiness and virtue by saying that the best athletes will only win at the Olympic Games if they compete.

A virtuous human being who does not exercise virtue is also like an athlete who sits on the sideline and watches the game.

Aristotle has a Very much proactive conception of the quality of good life: Happiness tends to wait only for those humans who go out and seize it.