CLEMENTINA DIKE
JEFFERSON COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES
PHYLOSOPHY 115 (Critical Thinking)

Eudaimonia means flourishing. For Aristotle, Eudaimonia is a habitual, virtuous activity, it is continuous.
Eudaimonia is something that is proper to the person and that cannot be taken away. It does not depend on pleasures of life or honor bestowed on one by people which are temporary. It is a life rational living throughout ones life.
Eudaimoina is the good that we all seek or should seek because it is full development and exercise of our human capacities in accordance with excellence or virtue throughout our entire life. For one to be happy, all his choices should be done in a good and excellent way – a life of reason which cannot be taken away.
According to Aristotle, the defining function of a human being is “activity of soul in accordance with reason. ”He asserts that guiding our emotions with reason or being rational in an excellent way, according to virtue could lead to happiness.
Virtue (Arête) is a life of excellence. It is a disposition to choose in a certain way, which is appropriate to that virtue. It encompasses all things, it is not partial. Virtue is learnt by practice and repetition. It is not inborn. It should be learned from childhood so that one does not need to struggle within himself to do good but is emotionally attached to doing good.
Intellectual virtue is the innate understanding of the character virtue as being good and their contraries as being bad. It enlightens and guides our desires and helps us to choose what is best in accordance with reason. Aristotle maintains that we must act knowingly and do the right thing because it is right and not because we have a personal stake in terms of future possibility of pleasure or pain. (Source):”Summary of the meaning of virtue theory of moral virtue by Aristotle”.
Ethical virtues involve learning how to do the right things, in the right manner, at the right time, from the right people. It is not just the life of learning but of doing as well. Aristotle affirms that if one is lucky to be born in a good environment that shapes his life they will have a good disposition from early age.
But everybody is not lucky enough to be exposed to the right people.
Moral virtue is a life of personal virtuous character – It is a disposition to choose action that are intermediate between extremes of excess and deficiency, This mean is not usually at the center of the two extremes. Virtue seeks the proper balance. For anger, the virtue (good temper) lies closer to the deficiency than the excess because a good tempered person achieves a proper balance.
Education and habit formation play an important role in the acquisition of virtue because if one
Learns/cultivates virtue from an early age, he does not need to struggle with doing the right things,
Hence doing the right thing becomes a habit.
Aristotle defines phronesis (practical wisdom) as “a true state involving reason, concerned with action in relation to human goods”. It prescribes what the mean is for every character virtue in every specific action in life.
It is basically developed by experience and by watching a successful person or by doctrine of the mean –
For any activity, there is a way of doing it that is too much(excess) or too small(deficiency). Finding the mean is finding the right way to do things which should not be in the middle.
Doctrine of the mean is the mean between the excess and deficiency of a given action, this is based on truth. Courage for example is the mean between cowardice and rashness in the field of danger. It helps us to find the mean by guiding our activities. According to Aristotle, a virtue of character should amount to moderation and should be temperate. It should be free of harm.
Friendship plays an important role in the development of virtue, there are three different types of friendship – friendship among the young people. This is immature and is primarily pleasure loving, it is short lived and does not develop virtue. Friendship based on youths – this is basically for mutual benefits e.g. business partners, when the youthfulness goes away, the friendship ends.
Friendship based on people who love virtue, each helps the other become a virtuous person, it is much rarer and tends to be much lasting if both help each other to be excellent which brings happiness.