Aristotle III:
Virtue Ethics
PHIL 1003
Semester I 2009-10
What is ethics?
Moral virtue (ēthikē) derived from
habits (ethos)
What is the nature of humans?
• As distinct from vegetable or animal?
– Active
– Rational
• These properties inform our understanding
of the telos, or good of human beings.
• Our good (happiness) must rest on a basis
of activity and reason.
What is the Good for man?
• Characteristics of the Good for man:
– Complete
– Self-sufficient
– Choiceworthy (having merit)
– Active
• Happiness
• What is happiness?
• Activity of the soul in accordance w/ virtue
‘…the human good turns out
to be…
the soul’s activity that expresses
virtue’ (NE, 1098a20)
You are not born virtuous;
You must become virtuous.
Virtue
• Everything has a virtue
• Virtue means acting well, in accordance
with one’s nature;
– Slaves,
– plants,
– animals,
– humans all have virtues;
• Man’s particular virtue = acting from
reason, for his community (polis).
Virtue
•
•
•
•
The end of man is to act virtuously;
Virtue is an activity;
It makes us happy;
We can become habituated to it through
repetition of fine actions;
• Education in virtue is necessary.
Virtues and the Mean
• Virtue = the mean (mid-point) between
extremes:
– Courage: mean b/w foolish risk-taking and
cowardice
– Generosity: mean b/w avarice and profligacy
– Truthfulness: b/w boastfulness and selfdepreciation
– Even-temperedness: b/w short temper and
apathy.
The Mean:
what does it mean?
• Mathematical idea: the midpoint b/w two points
• Aristotle applies it to virtue, NE, Bks 2, 4
• EX: generosity: b/w stinginess and
extravagance:
• “the excellence proper to material goods” (4.1)
–
–
–
–
Judgment: when and to whom to give
E.g. modern philanthropists’ financial advisors
Harder to give up what we have produced
More generous when have less to give
What makes a person good?
• Nature: attributes with which we are born,
i.e. genes (NE, Bk 10.9)
• *Habit*:
– Pre-rational
– shaped through repetition of good practices,
family and social influences.
• Teaching/Argument:
– IF soul prepared through habituation.
Goods necessary for happiness
(Pol. 7.1)
• Goods of soul most important:
– Virtue, wisdom, even temper, kindheartedness, or philosophic disposition
• Must be nurtured, cultivated, formed by
good habits
• Necessary, but not sufficient external
conditions:
– Goods of body, e.g. good health
– External goods, e.g. wealth
Question
What external goods do we need?
How much wealth, property, etc.?
Common view (Pol. 7.1)
• ‘Some think that a very moderate amount
of excellence [virtue, goodness] is enough,
but set no limit to their desires for wealth,
property, power, reputation, and the like.’
• Does Aristotle agree with this view?
His answer
• The ‘facts…easily prove that mankind
does not acquire or preserve the
excellences by the help of external goods,
but external goods by the help of the
excellences, and…happiness…is more
often found with those who are most highly
cultivated in their mind and in their
character, and have only a moderate
share of external goods…’ (emph. added;
Pol. 7.1).
The question is not:
What is virtue?
BUT
How to become good (NE, Bk 2.2)
What is really central:
How your habits are formed; do you
have a good upbringing or a bad one,
do you live in a city w/ good laws or
bad ones? (NE, 2.1-2)
Enter Sparta
• ‘…with a few exceptions, Sparta is the only state
in which the lawgiver seems to have paid
attention to upbringing and pursuits’ (NE, 10.9);
• ‘…all [citizens] belong to the state…and the care
of each part is inseparable from the care of the
whole. In this particular…the Lacedaemonians
[Spartans] are to be praised, for they take the
greatest pains about their children, and made
education the business of the state’ (Pol. 8.1)
Ancient Greece
Happiness & Virtue:
Philosophy
• ‘…the activity of philosophic wisdom is
admittedly the pleasantest of virtuous
activities…it is thought to offer pleasures
marvelous for their purity and enduringness’ (NE
10.7, 1177a22).
• ‘…study seems to be the only activity that is
loved for its own sake’ (NE 10.7)
What philosophers want
• Philosophy = “love of wisdom”
• Thales the Milesian ‘showed that
philosophers can easily be rich if they
want, but that their ambition is of another
sort’ (Pol. 1.11);
• Hence Plato’s philosopher-kings do not
want power; they want pure knowledge;
• They have to be forced to rule.
Role of leisure
• Practice of virtue is active
• ‘the first principle of all action is leisure’ (Pol. 8.3)
• ‘we regard happiness as depending on leisure’
(NE, 10.7)
• What is leisure?
– freedom from drudgery;
• Also time for relaxation--what kind?
– know how to use leisure well, e.g. by listening to the
right kind of music.
Forming habits:
Music and Censorship
Plato
• Music: Phrygian
harmonia;
• Dorian for courage
• Censor poetry;
• Poetry attributes
responsibility for evil
to god (Rep., 378a,
380b-c).
Aristotle (Pol., Bk 7)
• Music: Lydian
harmonia
• Avoid performing
music b/c this task is
slave-like;
• Censor lewd
dramas—e.g. of gods
• These are bad for
children.
Preferred instrument (children only):
the Kithara [lyre]
A base instrument:
the Auloi [Pipes]
Question
• In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle proposes a system
in which virtue, goodness and happiness could be
induced by education. He suggests that a good
upbringing and prudent habits in thought and action are
the way to a 'good' life.
• His argument is strengthened by the fact that he views
virtue as the middle-line between two opposing ideas.
e.g. bravery is the in-between of rashness/cowardice.
• My question is: do you think that Aristotle's broad
definition of virtue is valid? Are there any counterexamples? If so, can Aristotle's Ethics still be applied?
(i.e. could his idea of moderation be what a society
needs in its moral education?)
Any contemporary examples?
How are children’s habits formed
today?