The Virtue Of Responsibility Analysis

Responsibility is a virtue many try to embody and balance, but I believe it is best exemplified by my aunt, Kathy. Kathy was the oldest of nine children and when she was 21 her mother died of cancer. Her mother’s death was hard on her, but since her father had to work to support the family financially, Kathy had to take on the responsibility of essentially being a mother to nine children. Kathy had to be extremely responsible and balance college and caring for her younger siblings; making them food, making sure they were getting their schoolwork done, and being there for them emotionally.
The virtue Kathy exhibited of responsibility fits Aristotle 's basic definition of virtue. In Aristotle 's view, the end goal, eudaimonia, is human flourishing. …show more content…
First, Aristotle says that every virtue has an excess and a deficiency and that the virtue itself is the mean, which means it is between the excess and the deficiency . With the virtue of responsibility, this is also true; the excess of responsibility is obsessive compulsive and the deficiency is irresponsibility. In addition, Aristotle says that virtues are acquired through repeated practice, which is definitely true about responsibility and it is often something stressed by parents, as it was in Kathy’s household growing up. A virtue also supposedly can only be acquired if a person has externals goods, like money and friends, which in the case of this type of responsibility is true because Kathy would never have been able to be this responsible without the support of her …show more content…
Being responsible is not necessarily pleasant, as it often requires that people do actions they do not want to, but they do out of a sense of obligation. In Kathy’s case, however, she might have gained some pleasure from caring for her family, which would further the argument that her responsibility was a virtue. In addition, according to Aristotle, something being virtuous requires that a person feel the right way or have the right state of character when committing the act, which is true in Kathy’s demonstration of responsibility. Kathy had the right state of character because her concern was for her siblings well- being and providing for them. Kathy choosing the action knowingly with the right motive in addition to Aristotle’s other requirements of a virtue make this act of being responsible a