The Role Of Virtue In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

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In the Nicomachean Ethics, we are provided with Aristotle’s philosophy regarding the nature of virtue. He aims at explaining what virtue is, how it is acquired, and how it is related to both happiness (eudaimonia) and friendships. Overall, Aristotle is addressing the questions of: “What is a human being’s telos (purpose)?” and “What is the highest good?” It is by answering these questions that we will be able to see how Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is related to both Socrates and Epictetus’ philosophy, not to mention how it has contributed to my understanding of generosity, and virtue overall. Let us start off by examining the question of “What is the highest good that people aim at?” According to Aristotle, “every art and every inquiry, and likewise every action and choice, seems to aim at some good” (1). However, at first there may seem to be many answers since it would depend on the activity. For instance, “of medical knowledge the end is health, of shipbuilding skill it is a boat, of strategic art it is victory” (1), and so on. Nonetheless, Aristotle points to a higher end, one which would be common to all good. The end result, a human being’s telos and which results from virtue, according to Aristotle, is eudaimonia, since it “appears to be something complete and self-sufficient, and is, therefore, the end of actions” (10). Now, from here we move on to see that there are two types of virtues, thinking and character. As far as how each type is acquired is as follows: thinking takes the form of logic thus making it teachable, whereas virtue of character regards ethics and “comes into being as a consequence of habit (practice)” (21). In other words, virtue is acquired by practicing it. Nonetheless, virtue is not something that will be obtained in a short period of time. Rather, it is far more complex than that since “virtue of character is a mean condition(…)because it is a mean between two kinds of vice, the one resulting from excess and the other from deficiency, and that it is a such a mean condition on account of being apt to hit the mean in feelings and actions” (34). In short, acquiring virtue is a difficult task since one must determine an appropriate balance between excess and deficiency (although there are some actions, like murder, for which there is no mean), not to mention that each action must be performed knowing, be chosen for its own sake, and arise from a stable condition of the soul. In addition, Aristotle goes on to show how virtue is related to eudaimonia and friendship. …show more content…
He gives three distinctions on how human beings make choices. They are based on whether they provide pleasure, usefulness, or are simply beautiful actions. It is from here that the relationship between virtue and friendship is conveyed. Aristotle attributes the same three choice-making elements (pleasure, usefulness, and beautiful actions) to describe friendship. For example, he points to that some human beings are friends for pleasure. More specifically, one person enjoys the presence of another person (e.g. enjoying being around humorous individuals). Also, people may be friends in order to get something in exchange (e.g. being friends with a rich individual). Yet, according to Aristotle, friendships based on these two former conditions are not genuine friendships since they do not hold virtue. For Aristotle, friendships not based on pleasure or usefulness, but rather on simply being beautiful, are genuine in the aspect that virtue is involved. In other words, “the complete sort of friendship is that between people who are good and are alike in virtue, since they wish for good things for one another in the same way insofar as they are good, and they are good in themselves” (147). To further expand, this concept also extends to being friends with oneself; one must be friends “beautifully” with him/herself. And in doing so, a person’s virtue or goodness will pour from them onto others. As far as my active engagement, it was centered on Aristotle’s virtue of generosity. From this week-long engagement, I opted to donate to various organizations that I came across. One way in which I did it was by giving monetary donations to any charitable cause I encountered (e.g. at convenience stores when asked if I wished to donate and

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