Aristotle Moral Character Reviewer LORD HELP ME PLS

 Nichomachean Ethics – first systematic review of ethics in da west

 Difference between Plato and Aristotle’s Ethical theories: concept of the nature of moral
principles due to different metaphysical positions
o For Plato: moral evaluations presuppose a “good” independent from experience,
personality and character
o For Aristotle: basic moral principle is immanent in our daily activities and can only
be discovered by studying them
 Aristotle’s inquiry started with what men fundamentally #LUCIFER!!! A man’s end must
be one which is:
o Self-sufficient – even when isolated there is nothing lacking
o Final – desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else OOF
o Attainable by man
 Happiness alone is the goal to meet these requirements, but this is just a preliminary
agreement in what is to be known in ethics
 Nature of happiness, Conditions of happiness’ attainment
 Happiness must be explained in terms of reason – man’s distinctive function
 DOCTRINE OF POTENTIALITY AND ACTUALITY – happiness depends upon the full
realization of man’s rationality
 VIRTUE – perform effectively its proper function
o A virtuous man lives according to reason
o MORAL VS INTELLECTUAL VIRTUE
 Moral virtue – concerned with habitual choice of actions in accordance to
rational principles
 Intellectual virtue – contemplation of theoretical truths and discovery of
rational principles

MORAL CHARACTER

I. Any investigation, practical or theoretical, has a teleological basis; that is, it aims at
some end or good. Ends or goods form a hierarchy.
 Good – which all things aim
 Apart from the ends, there are activities, and some are products apart from the
activities that produced them. Activities can also be the ends of actions.
II. Analogously...
 Good and the chief good – end of the things we do which we desire for its own
sake. It would seem to belong to the most authoritative art, the master art.
 Politics – influences everything (every form of art, who will learn it and to what
extent they should learn)
III. Aristotle warns us against expecting a high degree of precision in our study of political
science, since it deals with the human variable. It is a subject matter handled by men of
experience
  Fine and just actions – pol sci investigates, may be thought to exist by
convention not by nature
 “Goods” may also bring harm to many people
 Look at precision in each class of things just so far as the nature of the subject
admits
 Each man judges well the things he knows. A man who as been educated in a
subject is a good judge of that subject. All-around education = good judge in
general. It makes no difference in age. Defect of judgement does not depend on
time but on his living.
IV. Among those who are sufficiently mature to discuss ethics...
 What is the highest of all goods achievable by actions? It is generally agreed that
it is happiness – but with regard to what happiness is what men differ.
 Even the same man defines it with different things
 For Plato: apart from these many goods, there is another which is self-subsistent
and causes the goodness of all these as well
V. General criteria which make possible the identification of man’s chief good
 The good we are seeking seems different in different actions and arts.
 If there is an end for all that we do, this will be the good achievable by action.
 Since there are more than one end and we choose some of these for the sake of
something else, then clearly not all ends are final ends.
 Chief good = something final = always desirable in itself and never for the sake of
something else. Such a thing is happiness.
 Final good is self-sufficient,,,,, sana all
 Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action
VI. Although it is agreed that happiness meets these criteria, Aristotle recognizes that the
precise nature of happiness still remains to be explained
 Function of man. For all things that have a function or activity, the good and the
‘well’ is thought to reside in the function, so it would seem to be for man, if he has
a function.
 Finding what separates man from nature: life of the rational element – one part
has a rational principle, the other the sense of possessing one and exercising
thought. Life in the sense of activity is the more proper sense of the term.
 Human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there
are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete.
 It is impossible, or not easy, to do noble acts without proper equipment.
VII. Aristotle’s definition of happiness cannot be fully understood until the nature of virtue has
been thoroughly examined. But the nature of virtue, in turn, depends upon the structure
of the soul...
 The virtue we must study is human virtue, for the good we were seeking was
human good and the happiness human happiness. Human virtue = not of the
body but that of the soul.
 One element in the soul is irrational and one has a rational principle.
  We praise the rational principle of the continent man and of the incontinent, and
the part of their soul that has such a principle, since it urges them aright and
towards the best objects.
 But there is also one element in them that is naturally opposed to the rational
principle, which fights against and resists that principle.
 The irrational element appears to be twofold. The vegetative element in no way
shares in a rational principle, but the appetitive does.
VIII. The virtues corresponding to the two functions of reason are the intellectual and the
moral... (moral versus intellectual)
 Virtue too is distinguished into kinds in accordance with this difference.
 Intellectual virtue in the main owes both its birth and its growth to teaching while
moral virtue comes about as a result of habit.
 None of the moral virtues arises in us by nature; for nothing that exists by nature
can form a habit contrary to its nature. Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to
nature do the virtues arise in us; rather we are adapted by nature to receive
them, and are made perfect by habit.
 Of all the things that come to us by nature we first acquire the potentiality then
later exhibit the activity (e.g. case of the senses), but the virtues we get by first
exercising them. For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we
learn by doing them.
IX. Aristotle turns his attention to the task of explaining moral virtue.
 We must not only describe moral virtue as a state of character but also say what
sort of state it is. Every virtue both brings into good condition the thing of which it
is the excellence and makes the work of that thing be done. If this is true in every
case, the virtue of a man also will be the state of character which makes the man
good and which makes him do his own work well.
 In everything that is continuous and divisible it is possible to take more, less or
an equal amount, and that either in terms of the thing itself or relatively to us; and
the equal is an intermediate between excess and defect. Intermediate =
equidistant from each of the extremes.
 A master of any art avoids excess and defect, but seeks the intermediate and
choses this – the intermediate not in the object but relatively to us.
X. READY NA SI ARISTOTLE MAG ASSEMBLE TARAY AVENGERS KA GHORLJKFFSJ
 Virtue, then is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e. the
mean is relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that
principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. (tbh
sinubukan ko itong basahin nang di humihinga, nakakaloka)
 Mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends
on defect. Virtue is a mean, with regard to what is best and right an extreme.
 Not every action nor every passion admits of a mean; for some have names that
already imply badness.
 In general, there is neither a mean of excess and deficiency, nor excess and
deficiency of a mean
 XI. Direct examination of specific moral values
 Fear vs. Confidence = Courage is the mean
 Pleasures vs. Pains = Temperance
 Giving vs. Taking of money or Prodigal vs. Mean = Liberality
 Magnificent man differs from the liberal man (former deals with large sums)
 honor vs. Dishonour or Empty vanity vs. Undue humility = Proper pride
 Ambitious vs. Unambitious, while the intermediate has no name. Hence the
people who are at the extremes lay claim to the middle place.
 Anger: intermediate person = good-tempered
XII. Intellectual virtues are investigated
 Let it be assumed that there are two parts which grasp a rational principle – one
by which we contemplate the kind of things whose originative causes are
invariable, and one by which we contemplate variable things
 The virtue of a thing is relative to its proper work.
 3 things in the soul which control action and truth
i. Sensation – originates no moral action
ii. Reason – both the reasoning must be true and the desire right
iii. Desire
 The origin of moral action is choice, and that of choice is desire and reasoning
with a view to an end. Choice cannot exist either without reason and intellect or
without a moral state.
 Intellect itself, however, moves nothing, but only the intellect which aims at an
end and is practical; for this rules the productive intellect as well.
 Choice is either desiderative reason or ratiocinative desire, and such an origin of
action is a man.
XIII. Philosophical wisdom >>> Practical wisdom
 If happiness is activity in accordance with virtue, it is reasonable that it should be
in accordance with the highest virtue.
 The activity of philosophic wisdom is admittedly the pleasantest of virtuous
activities. The self-sufficiently that is spoken of must belong most to the
contemplative activity.
 The philosopher, even when by himself, can contemplate truth, and the better the
wiser he is.
 “And happiness is thought to depend on leisure; for we are busy that we may
have leisure, and make war that we may live in peace.”
 If reason is divine, then, in comparison with man, the life according to it is divine
in comparison with human life.
 The life according to reason is the best and pleasantest, since reason more than
anything else is man. This life therefore is also the happiest.