Aristotle on Virtue

1. Aristotle on Virtue

2. Introduction • Student of Plato • Teacher of Alexander the Great

3. Introduction • Student of Plato • Teacher of Alexander the Great • A Realist, not an Idealist

4. Introduction • Student of Plato • Teacher of Alexander the Great • A Realist, not an Idealist • Text: Nicomachean Ethics • Lecture Notes

5. Moral Background • Heroic ideals from the Greek Dark Ages • honour, fame, revenge, fate, courage, pride

6. Moral Background • Heroic ideals from the Greek Dark Ages • honour, fame, revenge, fate, courage, pride • Achilles the hero

7. Moral Background • Heroic ideals from the Greek Dark Ages • honour, fame, revenge, fate, courage, pride • Achilles the hero – choose glory • Fullest use of a man’s qualities

8. Moral Background • Heroic ideals from the Greek Dark Ages • honour, fame, revenge, fate, courage, pride • Achilles the hero – choose glory • Fullest use of a man’s qualities • Interest in one’s own character rather than the general good

9. Ethics • Aristotle’s Strategy • First describe what people ultimately search for in life. • Then give as philosophically precise a characterisation of this as the subject will allow. • Then examine the character traits that are essential to achieving what we ultimately search for.

10. Ethics • Every action has a goal “Every skill and every inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice, is thought to aim at some good; and so the good has been aptly described as that at which everything aims.” (1094a)

11. Ethics • Every action has a goal • A hierarchy exists Eg. Bridle-maker < bridles < horsemanship < war

12. Ethics • Every action has a goal • A hierarchy exists Eg. Bridle-maker < bridles < horsemanship < war • Most ends are instrumental

13. Ethics • Every action has a goal • A hierarchy exists Eg. Bridle-maker < bridles < horsemanship < war • Most ends are instrumental • Some (one) ends are final

14. Ethics • There is one goal for all actions “So if what is done has some end that we want for its own sake, and everything else we want is for the sake of this end; and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else (because this would lead to an infinite progression, making our desire fruitless and vain), then clearly this will be the good, indeed the chief good.” (1094a)

15. Ethics • There is one goal for all actions • Aristotle can’t prove this, but he believes it • He has a candidate final end

16. Eudaimonia • ‘Happiness’ is the one goal for all actions

17. Eudaimonia • ‘Happiness’ is the one goal for all actions • an overall-condition of a person’s life • Not a mental state

18. Eudaimonia • ‘Happiness’ is the one goal for all actions • an overall-condition of a person’s life • Not a mental state • The end for which everything is pursued • unconditionally complete • self-sufficient

19. Eudaimonia • Justified in terms of our characteristic activity

20. Eudaimonia • Justified in terms of our characteristic activity “But perhaps saying that happiness is the chief good sounds rather platitudinous, and one might want its nature to be specified still more clearly. It is possible that we might achieve that if we grasp the characteristic activity of a human being. For just as the good – the doing well – of a flute-player, a sculptor or any practitioner of a skill, or generally whatever has some characteristic activity or action, is thought to lie in its characteristic activity, so the same would seem to be true of a human being, if indeed he has a characteristic activity.”

21. Eudaimonia • Justified in terms of our characteristic activity • Our capacity to reason sets us apart from all other species. • So our characteristic activity (ergon) consists in using reason. • Thus our use of reason is the key to our distinctive happiness (eudaimonia). • We live a happy (eudaimonic) life only if we use reason with great skill.

22. Eudaimonia • Justified in terms of our characteristic activity • Aristotle’s ideal life - one view • Ends by telling us that the best kind of life is the life of contemplation. • Not many people think this is so desirable • It doesn’t match what he tells us elsewhere – describing a practical and active life.

23. Eudaimonia • A happy life is a life lived virtuously

24. Eudaimonia • A happy life is a life lived virtuously • Happiness requires the excellent use of reason • Excellence in the use of reason is virtue • Virtues are character traits

25. Eudaimonia • A happy life is a pleasant life “It is also the case that the life of [virtuous] people is pleasurable in itself. For experiencing pleasure is an aspect of the soul, and each person finds pleasure in that of which he is said to be fond, as a horse-lover finds it in a horse, and someone who likes wonderful sights finds it in a wonderful sight. In the same way, a lover of justice finds it in the sphere of justice and in general a person with virtue finds pleasure in what accords with virtue.”

26. Eudaimonia • A happy life is a pleasant life “Their life therefore has no need of pleasure as some kind of lucky ornament, but contains its pleasure in itself, because, in addition to what we have already said, the person who does not enjoy noble actions is not good. For no one would call a person just if he did not enjoy acting justly, or generous if he did not enjoy generous actions; and the same goes for the other virtues. If this is so, it follows that actions in accordance with virtue are pleasant in themselves.” (1099a)

27. Eudaimonia • BUT pleasure is not the same as acting virtuously “Nevertheless, as we suggested, happiness obviously needs the presence of external goods as well, since it is impossible, or at least no easy matter, to perform noble actions without resources. For in many actions, we employ, as if they were instruments at our disposal, friends, wealth, and political power. Again, being deprived of some things – such as high birth, noble children, beauty – spoils our blessedness.” (1099b)

28. Eudaimonia • BUT pleasure is not the same as acting virtuously “For the person who is terribly ugly, of low birth, or solitary and childless is not really the sort to be happy, still less perhaps if he has children or friends who are thoroughly bad, or good but dead. As we have said, then, there seems to be an additional need for some sort of prosperity like this. For this reason, some identify happiness with good fortune, while others identify it with virtue.” (1099b)

29. Virtues • Arete • ‘Excellence’ • A functionalist concept

30. Virtues • Arete • ‘Excellence’ • A functionalist concept “For just as the good – the doing well – of a flute-player, a sculptor or any practitioner of a skill, or generally whatever has some characteristic activity or action, is thought to lie in its characteristic activity, so the same would seem to be true of a human being, if indeed he has a characteristic activity.” (1097b)

31. Virtues • Character • Aristotle divides virtues into virtues of character (‘moral virtues’) and virtues of reason (‘intellectual virtues’). • Virtues of character are directed towards the intelligent handling of emotions. • Courage: fear • Temperance: pleasure • Magnanimity: generosity

32. Virtues • Doctrine of the Mean • Virtues lie between excess and deficiency

33. Virtues • Doctrine of the Mean • Virtues lie between excess and deficiency “First, then, let us consider this – the fact that [emotions] are naturally corrupted by deficiency and excess, as we see in the cases of strength and health (we must use clear examples to illustrate the unclear); for both too much exercise and too little ruin one’s strength, and likewise too much food and drink and too little ruin one’s health, while the right amount produces, increase and preserves it.” (1104a)

34. Virtues • Doctrine of the Mean • Virtues lie between excess and deficiency “The same goes, then, for temperance, courage and the other virtues: the person who avoids and fears everything, never standing his ground, becomes cowardly, while he who fears nothing, but confronts every danger, becomes rash.” (1104a)

35. Virtues • Doctrine of the Mean • Application? “I am talking here about virtue of character, since it is this that is concerned with feelings and actions, and it is in these that we find excess, deficiency and the mean. … [T]o have them at the right time, about the right things, towards the right people, for the right end, and in the right way, is the mean and the best; and this is the business of virtue.” (1106b)

36. Virtues • Doctrine of the Mean • Application? “[O]ne should exert oneself and relax neither too much nor too little, but to a mean extent and as the right principle dictates; but if you grasped only this you would know nothing more – e.g. you would not know what remedies to take if someone told you to take what medical science prescribes and as a medical man prescribes it.” (1138b)

37. Virtues • Training • According to Aristotle, we do not become virtuous by learning about virtues. Virtues are like habits or dispositions. • We acquire habits or dispositions by practice. • Thus we acquire the virtues, e.g. courage by acting as if we are courageous. • We acquire virtues predominantly in our childhood.