Aristotle Education Analysis

In addition to realizing that moral choices lead to a good life and that the function of a human is fulfilled through living morally, the claim that moral life is not devoid of pleasure further explains the connection between a moral and good life. In regards to the opposing claim that a moral life is devoid of pleasure, Aristotle explains how someone who is flourishing will act in a moral manner not simply because it is the morally correct action, but also because they enjoy doing so. Because humans learn to associate positive actions with pleasure and negative action with pain, a flourishing individual will feel pleasure from acting in a moral manner, which as previously illustrated, leads to flourishing and a good life. In addition, Aristotle …show more content…
In our contemporary society, education is characterized by an antiquated system of underfunded schools, segregation, and bureaucracy; however, Aristotle thought of education more as learning how to think and how to question. Unlike our education system which teaches students in a uniform manner preparing them for work in a factory, Aristotle considered education to be more about developing logical, grammar, and rhetoric skills. In this manner, students develop a foundation from which they can learn more disciplines and develop virtues. Aristotle emphasizes education to the extent that he claims, “those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well” (Aristotle). In this statement, Aristotle illustrates how education is crucial to “living well” and ultimately to flourishing. This statement also highlights Aristotle’s view that education starts at a young age. He argues that “we must learn to both act correctly and feel correctly” (ND). This is because habits start at a young age, and a good childhood education helps us to associate pain with immoral actions and pleasure with virtuous action. In this manner, an individual will learn to take pleasure in acting virtuously and thus flourish. He also emphasizes the role of habit in acquiring an education in that, to …show more content…
Aristotle argues that friendship is integral to a fulfilling life because “without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods” (Aristotle). He then introduces the assumption that “one might like someone because he is good, or because he is useful, or because he is pleasant” (Stanford). Aristotle describes three friendships based on which of these qualities draws the individuals together. There are friends of utility or for “what is good for themselves”, friends of pleasure or for “the sake of what is pleasant to themselves”, and friends of the good. These friends of the good are described as “perfect friendship” between individuals who are “good and alike in virtue” (Aristotle). These friendships exist with each individual being “anxious to do well by each other” and wanting to do what is good for the sake for each other (Stanford). In this regard, friends of the good are connected because they want what is best for each other with the value of the friendship being “wholly within the relationship itself” (Guardian). Aristotle even describes a friend of the good as being “another self” where there is “a single soul dwelling in two bodies” (Aristotle). There is only one soul because each individual is motivated to live virtuously for the sake of the other, but acting virtuously also leads to one’s own flourishing. Thus, as each friend is emulating the other in virtue, there is