Aristotle: Difference Between Intellectual And Moral Virtue

One of the most brilliant minds in history was Aristotle, a Greek Philosopher who learned from none other than Plato, an equally great philosopher. Aristotle is known for writing a vast amount on the study of philosophy and ethics. One of his most notable works is Nicomachean Ethics. In the second book of this collection, he discusses the difference between intellectual and moral virtue. However, before one can delve into the difference between two types of something, one must first understand what the overall something is. Or in this case, before discussing intellectual and moral virtue, an explanation of virtue itself must be made clear. While it is never explicitly stated in Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines virtue as the desire and practice of acting in the right way that is the mean between the positive and negative extremes of whatever excellence is being discussed.
One of the key aspects of Aristotle’s definition of moral virtue is that it is …show more content…
A virtue is not something as simple as a feeling or something one does for the day. Feelings are involuntary, and should not be praised or blamed or anything of the sort. However, virtues are worked towards, and should thus be praised. For as previously stated, virtue is behaving in the right manner, which one must do consciously.
Aristotle’s views on ethics transcend time. His views on the world will always be relevant, and his take on virtue is no exception. His argument is that true virtue is the predominant tendency to consistently behave in the right manner with a balance between the extremes of deficiency and excess, regardless if this virtue is intellectual or moral. In closing, he states that he is “not conducting this inquiry in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, else there would be no advantage in studying it,” which shows that by his own standards, he is