...There is no contesting that Abraham as he appears in Genesis has faith in God. Although this is true, many hold Abraham to be an example of what faith should look like despite reoccurring examples of his occasional lack of total faith in certain situations. In line with this, many would assume that Abraham possesses a virtuous character, as many perceive faith to be a virtue. However, by Aristotle’s definition of virtue as it is presented in Nicomachean Ethics, faith itself would not be a virtue but in fact an excess condition of trust and loyalty. It because of Abraham’s lack of total faith in God – which is itself would be considered a vice for two reasons: because it is an excess condition and because it doesn’t account for self-interest...
Words: 1551 - Pages: 7
...times of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, moral philosophy was an essential discipline which got taught in schools. Most of the Great philosophers of that time heard a different version, accounts and views about the ideal, moral virtues. In this essay, attempts are made critically to analyze the views, opinions and beliefs of two of the most influential philosophers of all time- Socrates and Aristotle ( Prior, 2001). The essays will showcase the crucial differences between Aristotle account on virtue, and Socrates account of virtue. This essay will then attempt to give an analysis of which among the two arguments is the most plausible. It should be noted from the onset the Socrates and Aristotle have different and also similar arguments about virtue. They concur that virtue is a state but differ sharply on its functions. These accounts shall get discussed in the essay ( Anagnostopoulos, 2011). The account on virtue as proposed, by Aristotle perceives morals virtues, to represent the characters that are a consequence of habits repeating themselves over and over again. His account explains that the virtues of a person can be traced between the two extreme ends of two cardinal states, which are scarcity and excess. His account divides virtue into two main sections. According to Aristotle’s account of virtue, these two main sections of virtues are intellectual virtues and moral virtues. He explains that intellectual virtues can only be acquired through the process of learning....
Words: 961 - Pages: 4
...characters’ “friendships” and makes the reader wonder, “Are Ed and Myra really husband and wife, or are they merely two different people using one another for their own gain?” This idea of “false friendship” can also be seen in the teachings of Greek philosopher, Aristotle. Aristotle knew the necessities of friendship, but also realized the different forms that friendship could take shape of. The characters of “Big Night” all together effectively represent a form of Aristotle’s friendship that is ultimately based on utility. Friendship is necessary to life and in a way, one can say the friends around us may define who we are. In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he elaborately discusses three different kinds of friendship: friendship based on utility, friendship based on pleasure, friendship based on goodness. Friendship based on utility is when both people derive some benefit from each other. Aristotle describes this kind of friendship as shallow and “easily dissolved” (Aristotle 144). The second is friendship based on pleasure, where both people are drawn to the...
Words: 1873 - Pages: 8
...thought that determining natural purposes was the path to the most fundamental principles governing the world. Thus, in biology, he sought to understand the purposes of various organs and characterized species in light of these purposes. Regarding ethics and politics, he tried to establish that man's purpose was to participate in the political community, since what separates him from the animals is reason and language (which allows man to debate). With this natural purpose established, he went on to argue that man is complete only as a member of a community and that the ultimate form of association was the city-state. Teleology also played a role in his famous theory of the Four Causes. He argued that natural science must not only take into account causes such as origin or form, but also the final aim. Thus health could be called one of the causes of exercise, even while the reverse was also true. For Aristotle, what is virtue and how do we acquire it? Virtue, for Aristotle, is the developed ability to recognize the right or good thing to do. In many situations, no rulebook can tell us exactly how to act. Thus a virtuous person must possess the appropriate disposition that can recognize–as if by instinct–the correct course of action. This skill is not, however, simply innate. Rather, we acquire virtue by the development of good habits, and in turn, habit is developed by the appropriate exercise of reason in past choices. In practice, virtue generally meant the appropriate medium...
Words: 571 - Pages: 3
...A Brief Look at Happiness If nothing else, one thing can be said about happiness: If individuals are happy and they know they are happy, they should clap their hands. While the intent of this simple statement is merely to amuse children, developing true happiness is thought by many to be very difficult. Also, happiness is often falsely recognized and misinterpreted. Therefore, being truly happy and knowing you are truly happy are very loaded concepts. The object of this paper is to analyze and compare the thoughts of three philosophers’ whose remarks on happiness have been most influential for centuries after their time. They are Aristotle, St. Augustine, and St. Thomas Aquinas. Although I do not have the perfect understanding of happiness and believe no one does, I believe that each of their approaches to happiness hold a common theme that must be inconsistent with true happiness. They base happiness ultimately on self fulfillment. One of the earliest to ask the question ‘what is happiness?’ was Aristotle, who, in a manner typical of philosophers, before providing an answer insisted on making a distinction between two different questions. His first question was what was meant by the word ‘happiness’—or rather, its ancient Greek equivalent eudaimonia. His second question was where happiness was to be found, that is to say, what is it that makes us truly happy? Reasonably enough he thought that it was futile to try to answer the second question without having given thought to...
Words: 3294 - Pages: 14
...I. THE THEORY OF THE IDEAS AND PLATO’S ONTOLOGY I. 1. The ontological dualism The theory of the Ideas is the base of Plato’s philosophy: the Ideas are not only the real objects ontologically speaking, but they are the authentically objects of knowledge epistemologically speaking. From the point of view of ethics and politics, they are the foundation of the right behaviour, and anthropologically speaking they are the base of Plato’s dualism and they even allow him demonstrate the immortality of the soul. Plato defends a clear ontological dualism in which there are two types of realities or worlds: the sensible world and the intelligible world or, as he calls it, the world of the Ideas. The Sensible World is the world of individual realities, and so is multiple and constantly changing, is the world of generation and destruction; is the realm of the sensible, material, temporal and space things. On the contrary, the Intelligible World is the world of the universal, eternal and invisible realities called Ideas (or "Forms"), which are immutable and do not change because they are not material, temporal or space. Ideas can be understood and known; they are the authentic reality. The Ideas or Forms are not just concepts or psychic events of our minds; they do exist as objective and independent beings out of our consciences. They are also the origin of sensible things, but although they are the authentic beings, Plato, unlike Parmenides of Elea, do not completely...
Words: 11604 - Pages: 47
...Aristotle and David Hume developed accounts of ethics that remained true to their own empirical philosophies that are different from more traditional accounts with the overall theme of how a virtuous person would live their life. In contrast, David Hume developed his own account of sentimentalist virtue ethics that challenges, or pushes back on, the virtue ethics Aristotle. According to Aristotle, we should be virtuous people – and as virtuous people do virtuous things. Instead of talking about particular actions and the rules according to which they are undertaken, then, Aristotle requires us to look at virtues, or qualities of character. Within Aristotle, the emphasis is more on character traits than on rules or obligations. Moral agency is not merely a matter of which rules to follow, but a whole way of life, which requires a unity of thought and feeling, which is characteristic of what Aristotle called ‘virtue’. What is a virtue, and what is the virtuous life? Aristotle’s definition is cited by Boetzkes and Waluchow: virtue is “a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e., the mean relative to us, this being determined by rational principle, that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it.” Virtue is a kind of disposition, but that’s not all – for virtue is a disposition to choose well. For Aristotle, virtuous action is action that emerges from one’s disposition to choose the middle point (or golden mean) between two vicious extremes;...
Words: 1667 - Pages: 7
...society member. Although, the idea of women as “creatures of the home” is not an idea that is lost to society. However, “women’s work” as an aspect of gender has expanded to include factory work. As seen through Adelheid’s account, she is expected to work so that she can help provide for her family. At her factory job she earns “two and a half guilders a week, for which I had to work twelve hours a day.” Now women have the opportunity to spend their lives not locked away in a home, but spending all their time in a factory. However, the life of a working woman is accompanied by the dangers of the factory foremen. While women had been at home being mothers, they had occupied a more private sphere, and going out into the public opened them up to being taken advantage of in a new way. As seen in Adelheid’s factory experience, it was not uncommon for women to be advanced because of “certain relations with a superior,” and just as common for it to end with the man leaving a string of working girls behind “so that he might, unhindered, “bless” a new girl.” While the life of an industrial working woman gave them opportunities to go out beyond the home, it came with the burden of being sexualized in the workplace and having their sexuality used against them for the pleasure of the male...
Words: 911 - Pages: 4
...ARISTOTLE Aristotle was born in Stagira, a “Grecian colony. His father was a court physician to the King Amyntas of Macedonia. It is believed that his purse of studies is due to his father’s influence of practicing medicine. He died at his country house at Chalcis, in Euboea at the age of sixty-two years old in the year of 322 B.C. He died to an illness he suffered from for a long period of time. There were legends that told his death to be because of hemlock poisoning, as well as another legend, it was said he couldn’t explain the tides so he threw himself into the sea. Aristotle was a high-minded, kind hearted man devoted to his family and his friends. He was a man who followed the ideals he outlined in his ethical treaties (“Aristotle”). During the time frame of thirteen years when Aristotle taught at his school, called Lyceum, he composed his writings into dialogues (“Aristotle”). His school was widely known as the walking school or the Peripatetic school because a lot of the discussion at the school took place while walking the grounds (“Encarta: Aristotle”). He taught the young conqueror Alexander, who became Alexander the Great, and thereafter his writings were lost and not recovered until the 1st century B.C. During the middle ages they were translated into Latin and Arabic and became a basis for Christian theology. In 2000 years no one has came close to his brilliance...
Words: 1314 - Pages: 6
...following of desires without even analyzing the consequences which these desires could bring in. For this reason, it is important to study the importance of desires, right virtues and the moral values which one should either leave or adopt in order to have the happiness and contentment in life. Aristotle has presented the fact that virtue is between the two extremes as according to the statement of Aristotle “moral qualities are so constituted as to be destroyed by excess and by deficiency” (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, p. 77). Aristotle’s believes are based on the use of brain in order to have the given pleasure of life. He states that the use of virtue is also related to the real meaning and working of happiness as...
Words: 1004 - Pages: 5
...honesty and give the wanted person up? Or does he lie to keep with his virtue of non-maleficence, protecting the person in hiding from physical harm or potentially death? Then, adding even more confusion to the mix, do his patriotism and loyalty to his country override all other factors and persuade him to release the innocent stranger? Any sort of ethical approach, be it utilitarianism, Kantianism, or virtue theory, leaves a remarkable gray area from which the doctor and German each must construct what he believes to be the most ethical decision. Of all the theories, though, Aristotle’s virtue theory presents the most conflicting decision-making process of them all. Virtue theory deals more with the character of what it is to be human, than the difference between right and wrong, and furthermore, aims to answer the question “what sort of person should I be?” As with any approach to ethics, Aristotle’s theory has its critics who would say that this theory is a failure for not providing a clear solution to the conflict where other approaches would be able to more efficiently and concisely resolve the issue. Determining which action or decision will be the best or most virtuous is a much more delicate task...
Words: 1904 - Pages: 8
...not a life worth living. Reason: when it reigns in his passion he will grow his community. The republic dialogue focuses on virtues and making living well possible, this is important, because all may life life of purpose. 2. What in Crito echoes or reaffirms Plato’s account of the good life? Man must focus on reflection for growth and contributing to the stability of the law in doing so will transfer into the community as a whole. Answer each of the following questions about “Philosophy: The Good life—Aristotle” 1. Explain Aristotle’s view of the good life. In particular, explain the relationship between contemplation and character. The views of good life set by the world is found in materials, money, honor or bodily pleasure Airistotle believes aLL THESE GOODS Are deficient in some way, material wealth is always aquired for the purpose of attaing something else. Honor is not connectted to the individual person, but perception of others. Bodily pleasure pursitment is not a good perculiar to human beings. View The highest good it must be something that is consistrnt, with the maximization pf our faculties as human beings. He believes that outward possesions havelittle value creatures fulfill life through pleasure while mans goal ought to be driven by knowledge aquirment and learning. Edaimonia is the Greek for his overall interpretation, to translation of this term is happiness. Interllecutal virtues + Virtue of Character = Eudaimo is the formula. *Habit is also another inciting...
Words: 1560 - Pages: 7
...(Mailloux, 1995) and West and Turner’s discussion of Rhetoric (West & Turner, 2010). The writings in question discuss the origins and evolution of Rhetoric, with Mailloux introduce a historical and philosophical criticism of “sophistic Rhetoric as applied in the modern American context” (for example, neopragmatism and poststructuralism), and evaluated in the rest of the book, whilst West and Turner enlighten the reader about the heurism and globalism of Aristotle’s Rhetorical theory with a focus on the discipline of public speaking. Mailloux introduces sophistic Rhetoric as founded on the pragmatic doctrine that “Man is the measure of all things: of things which are, that they are, and of things which are not, that they are not”, a phrase attributed to the Sophist Protagoras (Patrick, 2006). Others Sophists of note include Gorgias, Prodicus, Hippias and Thrasymachus – quoted in Plato’s Republic as saying “… ‘Just’ or ‘right’ means nothing but what is to the interest of the stronger party” (Plato & Lane, 2007)). West and Turner’s account of the Rhetoric show that the first teachers of Rhetoric were the "Sophists”, who were nomadic teachers of public speaking that were respected for their intellect and subsequently paid highly for their teachings. A modern understanding of Sophistic philosophy can be described by author and activist Rahul Easwar’s quote “The real fight is not between right and wrong; the real fight is between my right and your right”. Mailloux explains Plato and his...
Words: 2288 - Pages: 10
...medieval & Roman thinkers back to Plato & Aristotle. (a) communitarian theory, (b) natural law theory, (c) egalitarian theory, (d) civil rights theory. 2. The type of virtuous social order envisioned by Plato is called a __________. (a) democracy, (b) plutocracy, (c) meritocracy, (d) elected monarchy. 3. One of the basic ways in which one develops a virtuous character is from _______. (a) role-modeling, (b) having “peak experiences” & moving on to a higher stage, (c) just conforming to one’s culture, (d) studying philosophy. 4. Aristotle’s moral theory argues that _________________ is the primary end of human action. (a) following one of two extremes, (b) promoting utility, (c) acquiring virtues, (d) the happy life. 5. Another way of describing the end referred to in question 4 above is to___________________. (a) follow one’s duty, (b) contribute to human flourishing, (c) being civic, (d) fulfill the need for moderate pleasures. 6. In the long line of thinkers who have contributed to Natural Law theory of rights, one of the principles first put forth by Plato as both a natural & rational basis of justice/virtue is the principle of ________. (a)...
Words: 1034 - Pages: 5
...What every man or woman may experience in life is a betrayal from an unlikely source. This source can provide such great strength and accountability that may blind ones better judgment. There is many areas in ones lives where people often manipulate either the truth, or a lie just to save their ambitious motives in their agendas. Often, at times life can become overwhelming by the pressures of society, and the burden of present reality. Williams Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tale of a man who eventually falls from society because of a tragic flaw that exists within the Moors’ innate nature. The main character Othello is often viewed as a tragic hero and is often compared to Aristotle’s concept of what a tragic...
Words: 1526 - Pages: 7
