To Achieve Eudaimonia: a well lived life
The normative ethical theories are philosophical beliefs about what is morally right and wrong. Aristotle’s virtue theory focuses on the character of the individual acting in the situation, rather than the action itself or enforced rules. Aristotle believed that to be truly virtuous you must live well within an ethical community, cultivate good habits and develop phronesis (practical wisdom), and emulate moral respectable people (Standen Lecture). By living well within an ethical community, you become an ethical individual; you gain practical wisdom which is the main intelligence that leads to “moral excellence”, and develop a good character by seeing good and bad actions. Phronesis is key to becoming …show more content…
You are constantly accumulating phronesis because everything you see and are exposed to, helps to form your opinions of right and wrong; all of these experiences are later used in your decision-making process. Throughout your whole life, there are people who you see as virtuous, that you strive to act like. By imitating someone you see as respectable, you are forming your own codes of morals and ethics. At a young age, a person’s character is established by emulating another individual; children who do not have many of their own experiences, emulate parents, or characters they see on television because they believe that the observed induvial is worthy of respect. In Aretaic ethics, you pull from past experiences and observations, to act in a courageous manor. To become a megalopsuchos, “Aristotle’s Great-Souled Person”, you accumulate knowledge to become intelligent, are courageous, but not cowardice or reckless; one is self-aware and proud of their accomplishments, but not boastful (Standen Lecture). To Aristotle, doing this was also the key to …show more content…
The individual’s personality and character, which is being tailoring throughout their whole life, is seen as what does the decision-making. Past experiences and past observations allow you to know what to do in every situation. However, the theory does not take into account the fact that everyone sees things in different perspectives. Everything is relative, which makes this theory have no baseline or standards (Standen Lecture). Philosopher William Frankena felt that, “virtues without guiding principles are meaningless,” (Standen Lecture). What could be clear cut wrong to one person, could be in the grey middle for another. It all depends on what the individuals sees as virtuous and not virtuous. Aristotle, had an idea of what he believed as virtuous, but that could change person to person. In addition, if two individuals emulate different people, then they are learning from different levels of virtue; this will in turn, make them build their own characters unequally, and the cycle will continue. There is no set level of virtue that needs to be reached and there is no direction to find morally virtuous communities or people to
The normative ethical theories are philosophical beliefs about what is morally right and wrong. Aristotle’s virtue theory focuses on the character of the individual acting in the situation, rather than the action itself or enforced rules. Aristotle believed that to be truly virtuous you must live well within an ethical community, cultivate good habits and develop phronesis (practical wisdom), and emulate moral respectable people (Standen Lecture). By living well within an ethical community, you become an ethical individual; you gain practical wisdom which is the main intelligence that leads to “moral excellence”, and develop a good character by seeing good and bad actions. Phronesis is key to becoming …show more content…
You are constantly accumulating phronesis because everything you see and are exposed to, helps to form your opinions of right and wrong; all of these experiences are later used in your decision-making process. Throughout your whole life, there are people who you see as virtuous, that you strive to act like. By imitating someone you see as respectable, you are forming your own codes of morals and ethics. At a young age, a person’s character is established by emulating another individual; children who do not have many of their own experiences, emulate parents, or characters they see on television because they believe that the observed induvial is worthy of respect. In Aretaic ethics, you pull from past experiences and observations, to act in a courageous manor. To become a megalopsuchos, “Aristotle’s Great-Souled Person”, you accumulate knowledge to become intelligent, are courageous, but not cowardice or reckless; one is self-aware and proud of their accomplishments, but not boastful (Standen Lecture). To Aristotle, doing this was also the key to …show more content…
The individual’s personality and character, which is being tailoring throughout their whole life, is seen as what does the decision-making. Past experiences and past observations allow you to know what to do in every situation. However, the theory does not take into account the fact that everyone sees things in different perspectives. Everything is relative, which makes this theory have no baseline or standards (Standen Lecture). Philosopher William Frankena felt that, “virtues without guiding principles are meaningless,” (Standen Lecture). What could be clear cut wrong to one person, could be in the grey middle for another. It all depends on what the individuals sees as virtuous and not virtuous. Aristotle, had an idea of what he believed as virtuous, but that could change person to person. In addition, if two individuals emulate different people, then they are learning from different levels of virtue; this will in turn, make them build their own characters unequally, and the cycle will continue. There is no set level of virtue that needs to be reached and there is no direction to find morally virtuous communities or people to