Discussion Of Virtue In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle gives his viewpoints on what he believes happiness is, how one is able to achieve happiness, and why doing so is so difficult. One of Aristotle’s main concept is his comparison of virtue as a mean, with the vice of excess on one hand and the vice of deficiency on the other. I agree with Aristotle’s take, and I argue that, in my own experiences, to be truly happy one must pull away from material pleasures, but there has to be a balance in doing so. Too much or too little of anything can be problematic, and this is why virtue is a mean. Everyone has their own idea of what happiness is because defining it is so difficult to define. Many think it is something visible or palpable like pleasure or wealth, but Aristotle believes there is an absolute good. He defines “the good” as “that at which all things aim”. What he is saying here is that internal happiness far outweighs external. While things like iPhones can bring about brief feelings of joy, studying hard and getting a good grade on a test is a different, more emphatic happiness. What Aristotle means by “virtue as the mean” is that vices fall short or go …show more content…
It requires a perfect balance; too much or too little can deteriorate happiness. Aristotle uses the example of giving money to demonstrate why finding the mean is so difficult, “… and anybody can give or spend money, but to give it to the right persons, to give the right amount of it and to give it at the right time and for the right cause and in the right way, this is not what anybody can do, nor is it easy.” It is very easy to give no money away to others in need, and it is also very easy to give too much of your money away, however the person that strikes the balance has found the mean. This example, and the example I am about to present, convinced me to agree with Aristotle in his arguments on the mean and