...Aristotle defines virtues as the mean between two vices. Virtues help us determine how to determine where the means between the vices of deficiency and excess lie. For example, the mean of courage lies between the vices of rashness and cowardice. The vicious man lives in one of the two extremes of the continuum – either excess or deficiency – whereas the virtuous man acts with regard to the mean. Although this mean can change depending on the person and the circumstances, virtue allows us to determine where it lies in a particular instance. Temperance, according to Aristotle, is “a mean with regard to pleasures” (980). Few people struggle with the vice of deficiency: it is much more common for people to be excessive in pleasure as opposed to...
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...Virtue can simply be defined as the quality in a person to do what is right and shun what is wrong. Virtue enables a person to attain moral excellence. It is not only a quality which has substance, but also one, which is extremely desirable. In ancient Greek, during 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...
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...Just as each animal is thought to have a proper function, it also has a proper pleasure which corresponds to the activity of that function. The pleasures proper to human beings are those which correspond to the activity of a perfect and blessed man. Section 6: Let us review what has already been said about happiness. Happiness is an activity of some sort which is chosen for its own sake and is self-sufficient. Actions according to virtue are chosen for their own sake. Happiness is not found in amusement, for it would be absurd to argue that the goal of a person's life and work is amusement. Rather, amusement is chosen for the purpose of relaxation, which is necessary to enable a person to engage in serious work. Everything is thought to be chosen for the sake of something else except for happiness. A happy life is a life according to virtue. Section 7: Since it has already been established [in Book One] that happiness is an activity according to virtue, it is reasonable to posit that it is an activity according to the highest virtue, which would be an activity corresponding to the best part of man. The activity of the intellect is the best human activity, since it corresponds to the highest part of man, is concerned with the best objects, is the most continuous activity, is self-sufficient, and is loved for its own sake. Everything attributed to a blessed man seems to exist in the activity of the intellect, which is contemplation. A life of contemplation, then, would...
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...ARISTOTLE’S PRUDENCE IN UPHOLDING THE VANISHING FILIPINO VALUE; DELICADEZA A Termpaper Presented to Dr. Rodrigo Abenes,PH.D Rogationist Seminary College-Manila In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy Submitted by: Sem. Joseph Jeric C. Umangga ARISTOTLE’S PRUDENCE IN UPHOLDING THE VANISHING FILIPINO VALUE; DELICADEZA I. INTRODUCTION Ancestors during their times are known for being disciplined and decent citizens.[1]Ancient law makers had filled the Philippines through instituting laws, rules and regulations to provide the citizens a peaceful and orderly way of life. Through the obedience of the Filipinos, they had practiced to be always properly conducted every time in accordance with the place they dwell with. Later on, Filipinos have found the conclusion which is to include the value called Delicadeza as one of the Filipino values. II. DELICADEZA AS A VALUE Delicadeza is a Spanish word coined from “Delicado” which means fragile, irreplaceable and precious.[2] In Spanish it can mean many things – ‘delicacy’, ‘kindness’, ‘tact.’ The word implies a care for what others think and the accordant behavior this requires from the person in act. When one does not exhibit delicadeza then one does not care what others think and will behave despite what has been deemed ‘improper. ’ Delicadeza, in this sense, can be seen to underline a sense of community...
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...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...
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...Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle was one of the greatest intellectual figures of western history; his philosophical system became the framework for many religions such as Christian scholasticism and medieval Islamic philosophy. Aristotelian concepts remain embedded in modern day thinking as he developed the logic of the categorical syllogism and perception of virtue ethics. Men are mortal, Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal. In propositions like the previous one, Aristotle says, something is predicated of something else. This phrase is a categorical syllogism modernly called deductive reasoning; deductive reasoning is now defined as from the combination of a general statement and a specific statement, a conclusion is deduced. This phrase structure is commonly used in today’s argumentative literature line of reasoning. In addition to inventing this technical vocabulary, Aristotle deciphered the meaning behind virtue ethics. Aristotle’s findings in ethics led to a belief in no truism. It’s a distinctive ethical theory that differs with other influential ethical belief systems because his research and beliefs aren’t based on cliche, obviously true statements. Aristotle sums up explaining this process by stating “Only when correct reasoning and right desire come together does truly virtuous action result.” Aristotle called this a practical syllogism; consisting of a general recipe for a good life, followed by a description of the actual circumstances and concluding...
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...Ethical Approaches Four Ethical Approaches Four Ethical Approaches- By Buie Seawell, Daniels College of Business, University of Denver There are many ways to define "ethics," almost as many as there are ethicists. For our purposes, let's use this definition: Ethics is the discipline and practice of applying value to human behavior (as well as to the constructs of human culture particularly to morality, customs and laws) resulting in meaningfulness. From the earliest moments of recorded human consciousness, the ethical discipline has exhibited four fundamental "approaches" These four approaches are often called "ethical decision-making frameworks:" Utilitarian Ethics (outcome based), Deontological Ethics (duty based), Virtue Ethics (virtue based) and Communitarian Ethics (community based). Each has a distinctive point of departure as well as distinctive ways of doing the fundamental ethical task of raising and answering questions of value. It is also important to understand that all four approaches have both overlaps and common elements. Some of the "common elements" of all four approaches are the following: · Impartiality: weighting interests equally · Rationality: backed by reasons a rational person would accept · Consistency: standards applied similarly to similar cases · Reversibility: standards that apply no matter who "makes" the rules These are, in a sense, the rules of the "ethics game", no matter which school or approach to ethics one feels the closest...
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...Unlike utilitarianism, which focuses on the consequences of an action, and deontological ethics, which focuses on moral rules; virtue ethics focuses on doing something simply because it’s the right thing to do based on established virtues. Aristotle (Irbe, 2000) listed several virtues and vices that correspond to different “actions” or “feelings”. Each virtue has two corresponding vices that accompany it, one of the vices occurs when there is an excess of the virtue, and the other occurs when the virtue is deficient. The feeling associated with modesty is shame. If there is too much shame, it would be shyness; however not enough shame would be shamelessness. Virtue ethics focuses on choices that an individual should make based on morals that hold true regardless of the laws and customs of a person’s specific culture. Essentially everyone should be held accountable to the same virtues even if local laws and customs allow the behavior. One should apply virtue ethics to both their personal lives as well as their professional lives. In the 1990’s major concerns were exposed in the manufacturing community about working conditions in factories located in third-world countries (Sethi, Veral, Shapiro, & Emelianova, 2010). Major pressure was then placed on numerous manufacturing companies in an attempt to force them to change their practices and improve working conditions in their factories. While it is the goal of every company to continually increase profits, a company should...
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...Virtue Ethics—Analysis of the Virtue Expected | Virtue ethics draws its inspiration from the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B. C.). In Th e Nicomachean Ethics he explored the nature of a good life. He thought that the goal of life is happiness. Th is is not happiness in a hedonistic sense. Instead, happiness, for Aristotle, is an activity of the soul. We fulfi ll our goal of being happy by living a virtuous life, a life in accordance with reason. Now, virtue is a character of the soul that is demonstrated only in voluntary actions (i.e., in acts that are freely chosen after deliberation). So, we become virtuous by regularly performing virtues acts. But Aristotle also felt that there is a need for ethical education so that people will know what acts are virtuous. Aristotle thought that we can understand and identify virtues by arranging human characteristics in triads, with the two extremes being vices and the middle one being a virtue. For Aristotle, courage is the mean between cowardice and rashness; temperance is between self-indulgence and insensibility. Th e other virtues of pride, ambition, good temper, friendliness, truthfulness, ready wit, shame, and justice can similarly be seen as the middle way between two vices. Virtue is the golden mean. Th is is not an arithmetic mean, but rather a path between extremes positions that would vary depending upon the circumstances. You need to use your reasoning to identify the mean in each ethical situation, and you become better...
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...interpreted one aspect of the classical tradition from the standpoint of "~ibertarianY' political theory, in his essay "The State and the Community in Aristotle's Polieics. "' This curious attempt to defend the "libertarianism9' of Lykophron and Mippodamus3 against Aristotle's '6ppaternalism9'is a daring, if ill-conceived, enterprise. In Miller's presentation, Aristotle seems t o emerge as a villain who misunderstand the enlightened political thought of the Greek "libertarians" and, we are to infer, derails subsequent political thought in the name of "'paternalism." Fundamental to Miller's reading of the Politics is the idea t h a t there is a distinction between ""cmmunity" and "'state" that Aristotle confuses in his use of golis. He argues that in Book 1 Aristotle is using polis in the former sense, at the beginning of Book 3 in t h e latter, but that later in Book 3 he confuses the two. The pskis of Book 1, according to Miller, '%is understood as the community itselt a complex system of human relationships, voluntary as well as coercive, personal as well as public9' (p, 63). But, he maintains, in Book 3 Aristotle shifts his...
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...Analyzing Virtue Theory’s Decision-Making Capability A doctor presented with a patient who insists on being euthanized to free himself from pain obviously creates an ethical dilemma. The doctor in the scenario has many factors to consider—honoring the wishes of his patient, respect for human life, compassion for a person’s suffering, and responsibility to his medical profession. Considering these things, the doctor is clearly left in a conundrum, with his virtues giving him no clear decision to make. In another situation, a German man hides a stranger being hunted by Nazis during the Holocaust era in his home. When approached, does he stay true to his virtue of 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...
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...Ethics are philosophical analysis of the nature of the good life for a human. Aristotle starts off his work by stating that there exists an ultimate good in which ultimately all human actions aim for. The characteristics of the ultimate good are that they are complete, final, self-sufficient, and continuous. The good which all humans aim for is happiness in Greek, “eudaimonia,” which can also be translated as living well, and is not a state of being but rather a type of activity. “Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.”(Ch. 1) To discover the nature of human happiness one must determine what the function of a human being is. The function must be specific to human beings, which is essential to being a human. A person is mainly his intellect. Although the spirit and desire of people is also important, the rational part of the soul is what can most closely be considered a person’s identity. Human happiness consists of the activity of the soul according to reason. “Far best is he who knows all things himself; Good, he that hearkens when men counsel right; But he who neither knows, nor lays to heart Another's wisdom, is a useless Wight.”(Ch. 4) Every action that is taken must be done deliberately. Knowing what he/she is doing, and doing it because it is ethically correct is the meaning of ethical virtue. There are ten books that...
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...Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy is a book by Bryan W. Van Norden that presents an encompassing view of Confucianism in light of virtue ethics and of Mohism in light of consequentialism. Throughout the book, Van Norden makes excellent and understandable bridges to compare the philosophies of the East and the West. He takes the perspectives presented by Aristotle’s virtue ethics and other western philosophers and contrasts them with the conceptions that Confucianism offers towards leading a virtuous life and the process of the ethical cultivation of one's self, as well as drawing analogues between Mohism and consequentialism through obviously thorough archaeological and philosophical research into Chinese history....
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...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...
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...Dr. Katherine Heenan English 472 Spring 2007 February 20, 2007 Aristotle’s Life and the Rhetoric Books I and II Aristotle (384-322 BCE) • Aristotle was a student of Plato’s who disagreed with his mentor over the place of public speaking in Athenian life • born in Macedonia about the time Plato was opening the Academy in Athens • age seven went to Athens and entered the Academy--stayed on as teacher; left 20 yrs later on Plato’s death in 347 • Was ineligible to inherit Academy because he wasn’t Athenian • believed only scientific demonstration and the analysis of formal logic could arrive at transcendent truth • Dialectic and rhetoric form 2 major divisions in his view of human inquiry but they deal with subjects on which true knowledge isn’t available • Rhetoric: making persuasion possible • for Aristotle, rhetoric as the discovery in each case of the available means of persuasion--this discovery requires scientific investigation o in terms of speech situations, he focused on civic affairs • forensic speaking considers guilt or innocence—judicial speech centering on accusation and defense • deliberative speaking considers future policy—political speech centering on future policy • epideictic speaking considers praise and blame—ceremonial speech ▪ Aristotle classified rhetoric as the counterpart of dialectic o dialectic is on-on-one conversation; rhetoric is one...
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