Have you ever thought of why you do certain things or behave in certain ways in your daily life? Do you think that you would act in a specific way no matter what situation you are in? What defines ‘YOU’? Is it how you behave or is it how other people see you behave? These are the questions that every human being typically asks to themselves. While the answer can’t be responded immediately; a typical human being lives his or her life in a way that he or she gathers enough information to answer these questions before coming to an end. There are many helpful factors, like virtue that defines ‘YOU’. In this expository essay, I am going to explain what are the views of a well-known Greek philosopher, Aristotle on virtue? I am going to explain,
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Why is Aristotle concerned with virtue? Aristotle, as noted in the book Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics by Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins, states that the virtue is something “we learn by doing them” (Bartlett, and Collins 26). This means that the virtue is a type of a quality that every human being learns by performing in a certain way, continuously regardless of the situation he or she is in. Becoming a virtuous person is similar to becoming an athlete or a musician as they both aim for the excellence in the activity or action, both leads to a final end, and both have forms of excess and deficiency. Aristotle is concerned with virtue because many times, human beings confuse themselves with the correct meaning of virtue or a virtuous person which I am going to discuss later in this …show more content…
First, becoming a virtuous person means “that we may become good” (27) at performing certain good moral actions because we seek an ultimate end from it. For example, a virtuous person helps someone because he or she thinks that by helping he or she may feel the happiness and eventually become good at it. If we assume that the human capacity is infinite, then we can conclude that there is no end, except an ultimate end which is constant happiness at all times. Even though, the ultimate end is difficult to achieve, we constantly excel in our actions to reach that point at which there is simply no more improvement. As Aristotle states, becoming a virtuous person “requires experience and time” (26) one must do good continuously in order to meet the ultimate end. Similarly, an athlete seeks for an excellence in a particular sport by constantly practicing the action or the activity because the goal is to get recognized by others, which gives the happiness in return. To exemplify, a person learns to play tennis by constantly practicing how to play the game. As I have said before, we must perform a certain activity “by doing things in our interactions with human beings” (27) or else it leads to the bad end, which is similar to becoming a
Why is Aristotle concerned with virtue? Aristotle, as noted in the book Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics by Robert C. Bartlett and Susan D. Collins, states that the virtue is something “we learn by doing them” (Bartlett, and Collins 26). This means that the virtue is a type of a quality that every human being learns by performing in a certain way, continuously regardless of the situation he or she is in. Becoming a virtuous person is similar to becoming an athlete or a musician as they both aim for the excellence in the activity or action, both leads to a final end, and both have forms of excess and deficiency. Aristotle is concerned with virtue because many times, human beings confuse themselves with the correct meaning of virtue or a virtuous person which I am going to discuss later in this …show more content…
First, becoming a virtuous person means “that we may become good” (27) at performing certain good moral actions because we seek an ultimate end from it. For example, a virtuous person helps someone because he or she thinks that by helping he or she may feel the happiness and eventually become good at it. If we assume that the human capacity is infinite, then we can conclude that there is no end, except an ultimate end which is constant happiness at all times. Even though, the ultimate end is difficult to achieve, we constantly excel in our actions to reach that point at which there is simply no more improvement. As Aristotle states, becoming a virtuous person “requires experience and time” (26) one must do good continuously in order to meet the ultimate end. Similarly, an athlete seeks for an excellence in a particular sport by constantly practicing the action or the activity because the goal is to get recognized by others, which gives the happiness in return. To exemplify, a person learns to play tennis by constantly practicing how to play the game. As I have said before, we must perform a certain activity “by doing things in our interactions with human beings” (27) or else it leads to the bad end, which is similar to becoming a