Aristotle
The Mind of the School
From The Nichomachean Ethics
• “It is no easy task to be good…. any one
can get angry- that is easy- or give or
spend money; but to do this to the right
person, to the right extent, at the right
time, with the right motive, and in the right
way..is not easy”
Aristotle and Virtue
• What assumptions does Aristotle make concerning his
philosophy of Life and how to live virtuously?
• First, assumed the Good Existed (Plato)
• Meaning of Virtue? A character trait that helps make a
person a good person
• Virtue as the mean between extremes?: yes, but…
• A virtuous mean does not always exist for all character
traits:
• Adultery, theft, murder are always wrong: spite,
shamelessness, envy, can never be virtuous or have a
mean
Virtue and Eudaimonia: An
Essential Component of Successful
Living
•
•
•
•
•
Ultimate end of human life?
Happiness
Key distinction: happiness and pleasure
Are many things we desire
Aristotle does not want to say goal of life is
simple physical gratification
• Has a more ‘long-term happiness’ in mind
eudaimonia
eudaimonia
An activity of the soul
in conformity with perfect virtue
extended over a lifetime
supplemented by sufficient
external goods.
Eudaimonia as Virtues,
Character, and the Good Life
• Virtues are desirable because they
promote long-term happiness
(eudaimonia)
• Character traits such as self-confidence,
friendliness, honesty tend to increase our
chances of success
• Can justify a virtuous life because it
promotes the well being of people who
have them
Eudaimonia, Family, and Friends
• How is Aristotle’s understanding of Virtue
relational?
• Our virtue, character, and happiness
depend heavily on family and friends
• Many of the virtues are valuable precisely
because they help cultivate strong family
and friendship bonds
Habituation of Virtue
• Aristotle: none of the virtues of character
arise naturally in us
• Rather, we have a natural ability to acquire
virtue through habituation
• We become just by doing just actions,
temperate by doing temperate actions
• Refraining from pleasure allows us to
become temperate
Modeling Virtuous Character
• We are both influenced by and influence
others through our moral development and
virtuous behavior
Virtue: the mean between
extremes
Spectrum Deficiency
Fear --Confide
nce
Coward
Mean
Excess
Courage
Rash
Spectrum:
DEFICIENCY
MEAN
EXCESS
Fear  Confidence
Coward
COURAGE
Rash
Pain  Pleasure
‘insensible’
TEMPERANCE
Self-indulgence
$Money$
Meanness
LIBERALITY
Prodigality
Undue Humility
PROPER PRIDE
Empty Vanity
Honor  Dishonor
Unambitious
Ambitious
Anger
Inirascibilty
GOOD
TEMPERED
Irascibilty
Truth
Mock-modest
TRUTHFULNESS
Boaster
Boorishness
WIT
Buffoonery
Quarlesome
FRIENDLINESS
Flatterer
Shameless
MODEST
Bashful
Spite
RIGHTEOUS
INDIGNATION
Envy
Pleasantness
Passions
Pain  Pleasure wrt
Neighbors
As Mom says:
“Moderation in
all things.”
Aristotle’s
Four Causes
Definition
Your
Your
Example
Example
Soul?
Cause
Material Cause
Formal Cause
Efficient Cause
Final Cause
“that out of which a Elements:
earth,the
air,
“Wood is what
thing comes to be, water,
or…out
table isfire,
made
and which persists” of.”
“the statement of
essence”
“the account of
what-it-is-to-be”
“the primary source
of change,
generation, or
movement”
“the end or goal,
that for the sake of
which a thing is
done”
Shape,
“Havingfigure,
four legs
blueprint,
and a flat type…
top is what
it is to be a table.”
The
man whoisgives
“A carpenter
what
advice,
theafather
produces
table.”(of
a child)…
Health
(isupon
the cause
“Writing
is what
of
exercise)…
a table
is for.”