Aristotle and

Virtue Ethics
Module 9

We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence, then, is not an act, but
a habit.
Aristotle
Intended
Learning
Outcome
At the end of the lesson, the
students should be able to;

identify the key components,

strengths, and weaknesses of a
moral theory

illustrate a moral theory's

applicability and theoretical
reasoning in evaluating and
responding to contemporary ethical
issues.
 The
Nichomach
ean Ethics
Topics We'll Cover

Aristotle's theory of
morality centers around
the belief that people, as
everything else in nature,
have a distinctive end to
achieve or function to
The
Nichomach
ean Ethics
For Aristotle, the principle of good and right was
embedded within each person; moreover, this
If this is so, the question
principle could be discovered by studying the
for ethics is, "What is the essential nature of humanity and attained through
good at which human actual behavior in daily life
behavior aims?"
Having said that all action
aims toward an end,
Aristotle wants to
distinguish between two
major kinds of ends.

I N S T R U M E N TA L TYPES OF
END S are done as means for
acts that
other ends "ENDS"

INTRINSIC ENDS
acts that are done for their own
sake
TYPE OF "ENDS"
How shall the word good be
understood?
Aristotle tied the word good to the
special function of a thing.
A hammer is good if it does what hammers are
expected to do.
A carpenter is good if he or she fulfills his or her
function as a builder

Aristotle distinguishes between

one's craft and profession and one's
for instance;
activity as a person.
being a good doctor did not the mean the same
thing as being a good person.

There are two different functions here, the

function of doctoring and the function of acting
as a person
 Types of
"Ends"

To discover the good at

75
which a person should aim
50
Aristotle said we must discover the
25
distinctive function of human
nature. The good person, according
0
Item 1 Item 2 Item 3 Item 4 Item 5 to Aristotle, is the person who is
fulfilling his or her function as a
 The
Function of
Human
Beings

Aristotle asks "Are we then to

suppose that while carpenter
and cobbler have certain
works and courses of action,
people as Human Beings have
non, but are left by Nature
without a work?"
THE FUNCTION OF
HUMAN BEINGS
Aristotle analyzes human nature in
order to discover its unique activity

First, our human end “is not mere life,”

because that is plainly shared even by
vegetables.

Next there is the life of sensation, “but this

again manifestly is common to horses, oxen
and every animal.”
There remains “an active life of the element
that has a rational principle
 The
Function of
Human
Beings

He contends further that

“if the function of people is
an activity of soul which
follows or implies a rational
principle. . . then the
human good turns out to
be activity of soul in
 The human soul is the form of the
body. As such, the soul refers to the
total person.
Aristotle said that the soul has two parts:
the irrational and rational. The irrational
The Function part is compose of two subparts.
of Human A vegetative component gives us the

Beings capacity to take in nutrition and sustain our

biological lives.
An appetitive component gives us the
capacity to experience desire, which prompts
us to move around to fulfill those desires

Both of these irrational parts of the soul

tend to oppose and resist the rational part.
The conflict between the rational and
irrational elements in human beings is
what raises the issue of morality
 The Function of Human
Beings
The good person is not the one who
does the good deed here or there,
now and then. Instead, it is the
person whose whole life is good,
“for as it is not one swallow or one
fine day that makes a spring, so it is
not one day or a short time that
makes a person happy.
 Happiness
as the End

Human action should aim

at its proper end.
Everywhere people seek
pleasure, wealth, and
honor. Although these ends
have sone type of value,
they are not the chief good
 To be the ultimate
end
An act must be self-sufficient Happines
and final, “that is desirable in
itself and never for the sake of s as the
End
something else,” and it must be
attainable by people.

Aristotle is certain that all

people will agree that
happiness is the end that
alone meets all the
 Happiness as the
End
“Happiness, it turns out, is
another word or name for good,
for like good, happiness is the
fulfillment of our distinctive
function. As Aristotle say,
Happiness . . . is a working of the
soul in the way of excellence or
virtue.”
Happiness
as the End
The general rule of morality is to act in accordance
with right reason. What this means is that the
How does the soul attain
rational part of the soul should control the
happiness? irrational part. It is obvious that the irrational part
requires guidance when we consider what it consist
of and what its mechanism is.
 When looking at our appetites, we
discover that first that they are
affected or influenced by things
outside of the self, such as object and
people.
There are two basic ways in which the

Happine appetitive parts of the soul reacts to

theseLove
external factors passions. It leads us to
or concupiscent

ss as the
desire things and person

Hate or irascible passions. It leads us to avoid

and destroy things and person.

End
It become quickly apparent that these
passions for love or hate could easily go
wild when pursued by themselves. In
themselves they do not contain any
principle of measure or selection.
 Happiness
as the End

What should a person

desire? How much? Under
what circumstance? How
should we relate ourselves
to things, wealth, honor,
and other persons?
“None of the moral virtues
arises in us by nature; for
nothing that exists by
nature can form a habit
contrary to its nature.”
 Virtue as the
Golden Means
The proper course of action -
that is the virtuous course – is a
middle ground or mean between
excess and deficiency.

When we fail to achieve this middle

ground, we expose ourselves to vices
of excess or of deficiency. We control
our passions through the rational
power of the soul, and thereby from
virtuous habits that lead us
 Virtue as
the Golden
Mean

Virtue, them, is a state of

being, “ a state apt to
exercise deliberate choice,
being in the relative mean,
determined by reason, and
as the person of practical
wisdom would determine.
Therefore, virtue is a habit
 The mean is not the same for every
person, nor is there a mean for every
act. Each mean is relative to each
person to the degree that our personal
circumstances vary.

Virtue as There are other actions that have no

mean at all. Their very nature already
the implies badness, such as spite, envy,
These are bad in themselves not in their

Golden
adultery,
excesstheft, and murder
or deficiencies

Mean Moral virtues, then, consists of cultivating

habits that will spontaneously incline us to
take the middle course of action
Deliberation
and Choice

There are two kinds of

reasoning within the rational
soul. The first is the
theoretical, giving us
knowledge of fixed principles
or philosophical wisdom. The
other is practical, giving us a
rational guide to our moral
action under the particular
Deliberation
and Choice

Aristotle stressed that although we have a natural

capacity for right behavior, we do not act rightly by
What is important about
nature.
the role of reason is that Goodness is in us all potentiality. With people,
without this rational though, we must move from what is potential in us
element we would not to its actuality by knowing what we must do,
deliberating about it, and then choosing in fact to
have any moral capacity.
do it.
 Deliberation and
Choice
Aristotle said that “the origin of moral
action – its efficient, not its final cause – is
choice, and (the origin) of choice is desire
and reasoning with a view to an end

Aristotle held that people are responsible

for their conduct and, consequently, that
moral behavior is voluntary. But not all
action are voluntary

Involuntary act are those for which a person is

not responsible because they are;
1. Done out of ignorance of particular
circumstances
2. Done as a result of external compulsion
3. Done to avoid a greater evil
Contemplati
on

Human nature consist for

Aristotle not simply in
rationality but in the full range
covered by the vegetative,
appetitive, and the rational
souls. Virtue does not imply
the negation or rejection of
any of these natural capacities
Contemplation
The moral person employs all of his or
her capacities, physical and mental.
Corresponding to these two broad
divisions in human nature are two
functions of reason, the moral and
intellectual, and each has its own
virtue
The moral virtues are the habits that
help us follow the middle ground in
response to the desires of our
appetitive nature
The intellectual virtues focus on our
intellectual rather than bodily nature;
chief among these is philosophical
wisdom (Sophia), which includes
scientific knowledge and the ability to
grasp first principle
 If happiness is the product of our
acting according to our distinctive
nature, it is reasonable to assume that
we are most happy when acting
according tour highest nature, which is
contemplation
Contemplat
This activity is the best, Aristotle says,
ion “since not only is reason the best thing in
us, but the object of reason are best of
knowable object”

Contemplation is most continuous, since

we can contemplate truth more
continuously than we can do anything
Contemplati
on

We think happiness has

pleasure mingled with it, but
the activity of philosophical
wisdom is admittedly the
pleasantest of virtuous activity