ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
Born in Stagira, Greece (near Macedonia)
 Aristotle’s father introduced him to
anatomy, medicine and philosophy – he was
the court physician
 Aristotle became friends with the King’s
son Philip.
 Parents died when he was 17
 Plato taught and mentored Aristotle
 Plato was a leading thinker in Greece

Aristotle and Plato

PLATO
-
Plato can be understood as idealistic and rationalistic. He divides reality
into two: On the one hand we have ideas or ideals. This is ultimate reality,
permanent, eternal, spiritual. On the other hand, there’s phenomena,
which is a manifestation of the ideal. Phenomena are appearances -- things
as they seem to us -- and are associated with matter, time, and space.
He focussed on the abstract, the world of ideas. Ideas are available to us
through thought, while phenomena are available to us through our senses.
So, naturally, thought is a vastly superior means to get to the truth.
Senses can only give you information about the ever-changing and
imperfect world of phenomena, and so can only provide you with
implications about ultimate reality, not reality itself. Reason goes straight
to the idea.
-
-

ARISTOTLE
-
He looked at human experiences and the world of nature
Thrived on hands-on experience, observation and classification
-
Aristotle and Alexander
Due to political unrest, Aristotle fled
from Athens to Aegean where he
married and had a daughter
 Fled again to Macedonia and began to
tutor King Philip’s son – Alexander
(later known as the Great)
 Aristotle started a school (Lyceum)
 He wrote about logic, metaphysics,
theology, history, politics and ethics
and the basic foundations of many
science disciplines

Leaving again...
After Alexander the great died, there was
more political unrest
 Aristotle was charged with not respecting
the gods of the state
 Fled again, but died in a year
 Much of his work was lost the destruction
of the great library of Alexandria
 Only 40 of 360 works survived to today

ARISTOTLE AND VIRTUE ETHICS
The Pursuit of Happiness

Aristotle argues that all knowledge and moral
purpose aspires to some good. And what
according to Aristotle is the highest of all practical
goods?
HAPPINESS
 Aristotle does not equate happiness with
pleasure.

Happiness
Pleasure
An enduring state
It is the condition of the
good person who succeeds
in living well and acting
well.
•Only momentary
Hedonism is a school of
thought which argues that
pleasure is the only intrinsic
good.
A Hedonist strives to
maximize net pleasure
But what is the Good?
In fact, Plato himself also had a high regard for the good. To him “the good”
humans seek in life is in all things without being something itself. Nowhere do
we find the good; we find only good things.
 Ex. Beauty is found everywhere and in all things but nowhere do we find beauty
itself. There is no one embodiment of beauty.
 The closest we come to the good, according to Plato, is in contemplation. In
contemplation we bask in the good and good enters into our knowing. As
contemplatives of the good, philosophers are closest to the good. Plato argued
that one could find the good through reason. They have chosen the best – the
happiest. They are happy because they make true choices about the value and
worth of their actions. All others are ruled by feelings. They measure their
actions by how much they enjoy them, not by their value.
 Plato was in fact speaking out against a movement known as sophism. Sophists
proclaimed there could be no truth; all so-called truth is no more than opinion.
If there is no such thing as absolute truth, then there can be no such thing as a
universal moral code that we should all live our live by. In their view, moral
values were nothing more than individual or cultural opinion. The sophists held
that life is ruled by basic needs and desires, not by reason. A sophist named
Callicles argued that the best life is a life of sensual pleasure.

Like Plato, Aristotle was concerned with the short-sightedness of searching
for happiness by following one’s instincts and sensual pleasures.
But...Aristotle was more down to earth than Plato. He considered Plato’s
idea of the good to be too abstract. Aristotle insisted that one’s search for
the good must be identified with something real. The good, according to
Aristotle, is to be found in God. God is the embodiment of the good and the
good is inscribed by God into the nature of all created things. To search for
the good is to go to each thing and discover its potential. In each case one
needs to ask: What is the purpose of this thing and how can it best achieve
its goal?
 According to Aristotle human beings can only be happy if they fulfill their
basic human purpose or function. That is, humans can be happy only if they
act as humans are specifically meant to act.

This is why we call Aristotle’s ethics:
TELEOLOGICAL ETHICS
TELEOLOGICAL: having to do with the design or purpose of
something.
 A house is built to live in
 A clock is made to keep time
According to Aristotle, the “end” that human beings aspire to
is happiness.
The aim (goal) of human life is HAPPINESS Just like.........
 The aim of medicine is HEALTH
The aim (goal)
of human life is
 The aim of shipbuilding is a SHIP
HAPPINESS
 The aim of any sports game is VICTORY
 The aim of any domestic economy is WEALTH.
REASON




Furthermore, Aristotle argued that humans will be happy only if
they are able to act with reason in the various circumstances of
life.
Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have
to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to
change or justify practices, institutions and beliefs. It is normally
considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature. The
concept of reason is sometimes referred to as rationality.
Above all else, we are intended to be rational. Our greatest
capacity as humans and what sets us apart from animals is our
intelligence and ability to reason. Humans are rational animals
and we must base our actions on reasoning.
To act ethically, therefore, is to engage our capacity to reason as
we develop good character. This is the highest form of
happiness.
VIRTUE

When people seek to become who they are
intended to be, they develop habits that
represent the best of what it means to be
human. Aristotle calls these excellences
Virtues.
Virtue Ethics
Ethics should look not only at how we are obligated to
act, but also at the kind of being we ought to be.
 Many philosophers believe that morality consists of
following precisely defined rules of conduct, such as
“don’t kill,” or “don’t steal.” Presumably, I must learn
these rules, and then make sure each of my actions live
up to the rules.
 Virtue ethics, however, places less emphasis on learning
rules, and instead stresses the importance of developing
good habits of character, such as benevolence.

Cardinal Virtues
Plato emphasized four virtues in particular, which were
later called cardinal virtues:
Prudence
Fortitude
Temperance
Justice
 Three other virtues added by St. Thomas Aquinas include
faith, hope and charity. Together these seven virtues are
known as the Cardinal Virtues in the Catholic Faith.
 In addition to advocating good habits of character, virtue
theorists hold that we should avoid acquiring bad
character traits, or vices, such as cowardice, insensibility,
injustice, and vanity.

So what does it mean to have
the virtue of using our ability to
reason well in our lives?



Where our desires, emotions and actions are involved, both
going to excess and falling short are vices.
We act well when we seek the midpoint between excess and
deficiency (being moderate in what we desire, feel and do).
We acquire the virtues of living reasonably when we acquire
the various abilities needed to control our desires, emotions
and actions so that they neither go to excess nor fall short
According to Aristotle VIRTUE is the mean (moderation)
between extremes and having such virtues is the key to
happiness since these virtues enable us to act as humans
were meant to act.
YOU ARE WHAT YOU ACT AND
YOU ACT WHAT YOU ARE
We are not born with such abilities, but acquire them in youth by
being trained repeatedly to respond to situations in a reasonable
manner. We become virtuous by being trained to act virtuously in
the appropriate situations until it becomes a habit. At first acting
virtuously is difficult, but when we have acquired a virtue it
becomes easy and pleasant.
 Similarly we can become vicious by repeatedly responding to
situations in an unreasonable manner. At first an act, desire or
emotion of vice may make us feel guilty, but if we engage in that
vice long enough it also eventually becomes a habit via
habituation.
 This is why we should make sure that our actions are of the
proper kind for our character will correspond to how we act. Our
moral character is developed through the actions we choose and
our character in turn influences the actions we choose. Through
our actions we shape the kind of person we gradually become.

Example:
By
habituating ourselves
to disregard danger
and to face it, we
become courageous,
and it is when we have
become courageous
that we are best able
to face danger.

The test of the presence of a certain character trait is the
pleasure or pain that accompanies our actions.

Example: The person, who stands his ground against fearful
things and takes pleasure in this, is courageous, while the
person for whom this is painful is a coward.

In conclusion.......according to Aristotle, to assess the moral
rightness or wrongness of moral decision, then, we must look
at the kind of character that the decision produces. If the
decision tends to produce a virtuous character, then it is
morally right; if it produces a vicious character, then it is
morally wrong.
THE IMPORTANCE OF “POLIS” ~
CITY






A person’s character traits are generally developed by
“training” within a community such as:
society
Church
Family
culture
As a person grows and matures, his or her character is
shaped by the values that these communities prize and
by the traits that they encourage or discourage. Thus the
idea of community is important to virtue ethics.
FAULTS OF VIRTUE ETHICS

People turn to ethics when they face situations in which
they must decide what to do and the morality of the
alternatives is unclear. For example, a woman is trying to
decide whether or not she should have an abortion. In
such situations people ask themselves;
“What should I do?”

NOT
“What should I be?”
Virtue ethics does not directly answer the question of
what one should do. In this situation people would much
rather know the proper course of action as opposed to
what kind of character they should develop.
Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas





St. Thomas Aquinas rediscovered Aristotle
in the 13th century through Arab scholars
He was born into a noble family
either in 1225 or 1227.
When he was five years old his parents placed him
under the care of the Benedictines of Monte Casino.
At the age of 18, Thomas rejected the material life
and entered the Order of St. Dominic in spite of his
family’s opposition.
At the age of 22 Thomas was appointed to teach in
Naples and then in Paris and finally in Rome.
Thomas Aquinas & Summa
Theologica
 His greatest work Summa Theologica is
intended as a manual for beginners in
theology and a compendium of all of the
main theological teachings of the Church.
 It is famous, among other things, for its five
arguments for the existence of God.
 The Summa's topics follow a cycle: the
existence of God; Creation, Man; Man’s
purpose; Christ; the Sacraments; and back
to God.
God
Creation
Man
Sacraments
Christ
Creation’s
return to
God through
man
The Summa Theologica is meant to summarize the history of the cosmos
and provide an outline for the meaning of life itself. This order is cyclical.
It begins with God and his existence. The entire first part of the Summa
deals with God and his creation, which reaches its climax in man.
The second part of the Summa deals with man's purpose (the meaning of
life), which is happiness. The ethics detailed in this part summarize the
ethics (Aristotelian in nature) which man must follow to reach his intended
destiny.
Since no man on his own can truly live the perfect ethical life (and therefore
reach God), it was necessary that a perfect man bridge the gap between
God and man. Thus God became man - Jesus. The third part of the
Summa, therefore, deals with the life of Christ.
In order to follow the way prescribed by this perfect man, in order to live
with God's grace (which is necessary for man's salvation), the Sacraments
have been provided; the final part of the Summa considers the Sacraments.
In the end......
On December 6, 1273, Thomas decided that he would
leave his work on the Summa Thelogica unfinished.
During mass on that day he experienced an ecstasy
which led him to comment,
“I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to
me that all I have written now appears to be of little
value.”
 Thomas died while travelling to the Council of Lyons in
1274.
 He was canonized a saint in 1323 and declared a
doctor of the Church.

Aristotle and Virtue Ethics

Like Aristotle, Aquinas insisted that the ethical comes from the end that
is inscribed in the nature of all creatures. What something is for is
placed in the very core of what something is. At a person’s core is a
desire for the good. Aquinas, as did Aristotle, equated God with the
highest good. For Aquinas, however, this God is the Trinitarian God of
Christianity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Both Aristotle and Aquinas
held that people were made for happiness. But where Aristotle
connected happiness with the good life lived by a virtuous person,
Aquinas added that human happiness was not fulfilled with the good
life lived on earth. Because of his belief in God’s love for us as shown in
Jesus, Aquinas held that there is a fuller happiness – called blessedness
– that is to be found only by accepting God’s pure gift of the
resurrected Christ.
Aquinas’s ethics operated on two
levels: