Aristotle's Theories Of Virtue

1). Aristotle believes that the highest good for humans is happiness. He believes that all of our actions should lead up to the ultimate end goal of happiness. Aristotle says that most humans,”identify the good, or happiness with pleasure”(p. 50). However, in order to achieve happiness we must pursue happiness rather than pleasures and we must think rationally by using our virtues. According to Aristotle, our unique human function is to be rational beings. As humans we must make rational decisions in order to be rewarded with happiness. In order to make rational decisions we have virtues. There are two types of virtues: intellectual and moral. Intellectual virtues includes knowledge and any kind of theoretical part of the soul. Moral virtues are habits you have learned over time or they are something that we know. …show more content…
Our souls have three different aspects: the rational, irrational, and appetitive part. The soul can be viewed as a spectrum with the rational and irrational parts of the soul on both sides of the spectrum and the appetitive part is in the middle.. Aristotle describes the appetitive side of our soul as the part that knows what is wrong but still chooses to do it for the sake of pleasure. For example, if someone knows that it is wrong to steal a chocolate but they do it anyways that is the appetitive side of our soul acting. In Aristotle’s opinion we must seek happiness rather than pleasure because “life is also in itself pleasant. For pleasure is a state of mind”(p.57). It should feel good to make ethical decisions rather than feeling good about the outcome. Furthermore, in order to control this side of our soul we must use our virtues to make ethical decisions and,in Aristotle's opinion, we should feel joy in doing