Aristotle And Aristotle: Aristotle's Theory Of Dualism

Superior Essays
Contrasting Plato’s theory of Dualism, Aristotle explains that the body and mind are one thing that cannot be separated. Aristotle claims that motion is eternal. Introducing us the idea of happiness, Aristotle questions what we do to make our life good or something that makes us be alive. He states that the psyche or soul part of our life like happiness consists a good life for humans. There are different phases/stages that composes our life. The most important part, the Sentient soul, has sense experiences. We feel desires and different emotions in the Sentient soul. However, Aristotle claims that emotions can’t be the only thing that fulfill our success. Once again, he points out that the mind and the idea (knowledge/science) to accomplish …show more content…
We have to learn how to control the appetites, desires, and emotions in the Sentient part of our mind. Sentient is part of our mind and soul that is good for human life. But for Aristotle, human life does not just compose of the emotions. Aristotle claims that the feeling part is just as much part of the human being as the intellectual part. He states that it’s not really human, unless it involves the functional part of the mind. Therefore, feelings have to connect to the mind.
To initially describe Aristotle’s basic theory of virtue, he questions how human beings produce a good result. Our goal is to find happiness and eventually find a good life. Aristotle introduces the term Practical Wisdom. Practical Wisdom explains that human beings know what the goal is, but the question is the mean or ways to approach to the end. We have to find the right plan or path to obtain the goal. In other words, we see the options and pick the better option to follow the plan and achieve in success. For Aristotle, virtue is the mean between the
…show more content…
All Aristotle’s thoughts on virtue is analogical or equivocal, because there is not one specific meaning for virtue or courage. To overcome fear, we attain the excellence or virtue of courage. In fact, for Aristotle, there is excess and defect in regard to dealing with fear. We can’t just ignore fear to deal with it. Does that mean we can do whatever we want? No because that is an extreme. We can’t be foolish. So, we take baby steps, controlling fear little by little, and achieve our goal eventually. We find the half way point between being a coward and ignoring the fear. In that case, fear will sharpen our feelings. Yes, we are afraid, but we can control and direct the fear to accomplish

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Three Day Road Essay

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Fear can overcome people and turn them into something worse, but as human beings we can overcome fear instead of letting it consume…

    • 736 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Detailed Account of Aristotle’s Position on Happiness and why it is a Human Good According to Aristotle, happiness is an experience that is desired by all human beings. However, there are distinct views regarding what kind of life is considered happy. Aristotle provides readers with different types of lives that are believed to make people happy, including accumulation of wealth and a life of fulfillment that is characterized by comfort and pleasure. He also posits that a happy life is that which is pleasant.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Emotions play an integral part of virtue ethics, according to Aristotle’s philosophy (Helgesson, 2014). Aristotle’s view on moral reasoning inherent part of our sense in being. Therefore, examine the nature of emotions and address the situations through moral…

    • 1776 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The philosopher believes that by our nature, we are meant to aspire to a life of excellence and that we are rational and social animals that have habits of thought and feeling. Aristotle believes that we should adopt ways to continually have a well rounded…

    • 132 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Even though Aristotle was not a direct student under Plato at The Academy, he became and developed into one of the most famous Greek philosophers. After his years spent at The Academy, Aristotle developed his moral of philosophy in his book the Nicomachean Ethics. In this book, Aristotle explains the origin, nature, and development of virtues, which are essential for achieving the best and highest good that human beings are capable of, which is happiness. According to Aristotle, happiness is defined as to live well and do well, where virtue is key, but alone it is not enough. In order to be happy, you need full virtue across a complete life, which means that you need to regularly perform all the virtues.…

    • 1602 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The first part of the definition is excellence which can be achieved by fulfilling your function in life. “For we praise the just person and the courageous one-in fact, the good person and his virtue general-because of his actions and his works, also the strong person and the good runner, and so on in each of the other cases, because he is naturally of a certain quality and stands in a certain relation to something good or excellent” (I 12). In this quote, Aristotle explains that excellence is achieved by being virtuous and fulfilling your function and purpose in life. This quote also leads into the second part of Aristotle’s definition which is activity. Activity is both the act of fulfilling your purpose in life and doing virtuous deeds.…

    • 1542 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    p243-262). For instance, if you perform your function well, you will know how to act in the right way in every situation. This is because Aristotle has a teleological understanding and believes we all work towards a purpose. Aristotle’s ethics shows that’s, the function of reason is that, we need to aim to reach the good life (Wedin, M.V.1981. p243-262).…

    • 1482 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Hence the quote, “So virtue is a purposive disposition, lying in a mean that is relative to us and determined by a rational principle, by that which a prudent man would use to determine it.” According to this quote in the book Aristotle believe that virtue is accomplished by seeking the mean between pleasure and pain, and it is only through that, that we can attempt to be…

    • 473 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is not improbable that Aristotle would agree with this idea. He argues that it is just as bad to be a coward as it is to live a fearless, reckless life. Fear is an innate protective measure, but it is not always rational. Fear leads people to do stupid things, as does the lack of fear. It would be foolish to jump off a bridge, in most cases at least, because the likelihood of ending up severely injured or even dead is possible depending on the bridge’s height.…

    • 751 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle states that the ultimate goal for a human being is happiness and throughout his book, he provides a series of stepping stones that aid in the achievement of such goal. These stepping stones are what Aristotle calls ‘virtues’. He defines virtue as “a mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency” (1107a). He provides many examples of virtues that shape the way for us to achieve that ultimate goal we all look for called ‘happiness’. Within the many examples that Aristotle provides are bravery, generosity, and magnificence.…

    • 992 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Greek philosopher Aristotle explained the virtues of human character. These included courage, moderation, liberality, magnificence, and greatness of soul. Out of all the virtues he considered greatness of soul to be the preeminent virtue. Aristotle believes that virtue is something that the soul acquires and is the mean between the extremes of two opposing vices. He introduces greatness of soul as the mean between the vices of vanity and of being small souled.…

    • 1694 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Plato In The Republic, Plato acts as a scribe and recounts a particular evening that his teach Socrates had spent with his fellow Greeks, discussing various political topics. In the book, Plato outlines what Socrates’ thought justice was, and what a perfectly just city (the “city of speech”) would be like. One of the foundational principles in Plato’s just city is specialization. Each person does what they are best at, and don’t meddle in another’s affairs.…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In addition, through Aristotle’s teachings, you could conclude that what separates us from plants and animals are our rationality. Some things we do out of instinct, but other we do them because we thought about it carefully before performing the action. In my opinion, what makes us different from animals is our ability to have a set of memories, beliefs, and desires. When it comes to happiness, Aristotle teaches us to consider the person’s life as whole, and not just parts of it. The question to be asked with this is, when do you determine if the person lived a happy life or not?…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Philosophy 2306 Final Paper In The Elements of Moral Philosophy, James and Stuart Rachels discuss the ideas of ethics that a novice should challenge. This book consists of thirteen chapters. First, the author begins with the minimum conception of morality; the following three chapters cover cultural relativism and the connection between morality and religion; the middle chapters, five to twelve, focus on essential ethical theories; and the last chapter describes the author’s perspective of what a satisfactory moral theory should be like.…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Aristotle and Epicurus are two Greek philosophers who had a significant impact on the people of their time based on their philosophical ideas, concepts, and theories. However, many of Aristotle’s views on ethics are still incorporated into modern philosophy. Their philosophies are quite different yet shared many commonalities. Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue in comparison to Epicurus’ Theory of Hedonism is substantially more realistic and more solid. A society would be better thriving off of Aristotle’s theory.…

    • 1777 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays