Moral Responsibility In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

Moral Responsibility In book III of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he develops and discusses his theory on responsibility in relation to human actions and character. Aristotle states that as mature beings we are held accountable for our voluntary actions; but he also expresses that children and animals perform voluntary actions as well. In the following paper, I will focus on the actions and passions for which we are held responsible for, as well as those from which we are excused from. The first forms of action that Aristotle discusses are voluntary and involuntary action. When the principle of an action is out of a person’s control, the action is performed by force. Thus, Aristotle states: “if a wind carried someone away, we could say that what happened …show more content…
Therefore I should be the blame and held responsible for the child’s death.
Aristotle also states that an action is also considered involuntary when although the cause is internal, the action comes about by ignorance. He claims that we should be able to distinguish actions done in ignorance, and actions caused by ignorance. An action is considered to be “caused by ignorance” if the person who is performing the action is not aware of what they are doing, who or what they are affecting, or what the consequences are of their actions are. After understanding Aristotle’s views and theory on this particular segment, I conclude that Actions caused by ignorance are actions which we are not responsible for. This makes me revert to thoughts of religion. For example, Christians believe that reading the Bible is a crucial aspect in going to Heaven and understanding God; but If I live in Africa, and have never learned to read and I practice a cultural/tribal religion because that is all I was ever taught, then how can I be held accountable or condemned