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    Moral Virtues and Mesotes

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    Laila Mae Piloneo
    Moral virtues and mesotes are identified by practical wisdom. Mesotes refers to the middle measure of an action, feeling, or passion that is neither lacking nor excessive. A virtuous person targets this mesotes in their actions by exercising moderation. Practical wisdom guides one to choose actions in the proper degree required by each situation. Moral virtue is a state concerned with rational choice of a mean between deficiencies and excesses of passions.

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    Moral Virtues and Mesotes

    Uploaded by

    Laila Mae Piloneo
    11K views10 pages
    Moral virtues and mesotes are identified by practical wisdom. Mesotes refers to the middle measure of an action, feeling, or passion that is neither lacking nor excessive. A virtuous person targets this mesotes in their actions by exercising moderation. Practical wisdom guides one to choose actions in the proper degree required by each situation. Moral virtue is a state concerned with rational choice of a mean between deficiencies and excesses of passions.

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    Ethics

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    Moral virtues and mesotes are identified by practical wisdom. Mesotes refers to the middle measure of an action, feeling, or passion that is neither lacking nor excessive. A virtuous person targets this mesotes in their actions by exercising moderation. Practical wisdom guides one to choose actions in the proper degree required by each situation. Moral virtue is a state concerned with rational choice of a mean between deficiencies and excesses of passions.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pptx, pdf, or txt
    11K views10 pages

    Moral Virtues and Mesotes

    Uploaded by

    Laila Mae Piloneo
    Moral virtues and mesotes are identified by practical wisdom. Mesotes refers to the middle measure of an action, feeling, or passion that is neither lacking nor excessive. A virtuous person targets this mesotes in their actions by exercising moderation. Practical wisdom guides one to choose actions in the proper degree required by each situation. Moral virtue is a state concerned with rational choice of a mean between deficiencies and excesses of passions.

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    MORAL VIRTUES

    AND MESOTES
    “Developing a practical wisdom involves
    learning from experiences.”
    -Aristotle
    When practical wisdom
    guides the conduct of
    making morally right choices
    and actions, what does it
    identify as the proper and
    right thing to do?
    MESOTES

     is what practical wisdom identifies as the right action.


     the middle measure of an action, feeling, or passion.
     nothing is lacking or too much from an act that is morally good.
    A morally virtuous person:
    • is concerned with achieving her appropriate action in a
    manner that is either excessive nor deficient.
    • targets the mesotes.

    The rightness or wrongness of feelings, passions, and


    abilities lies in the degree of their application in a given
    situation not in the person itself.
    “Moral Virtue is a state of character
    concerned with choice, lying in a
    mean, that is, the mean relative to us,
    this being determined by a rational
    principle, and by that principle by
    which the man of practical wisdom
    would determine it.”
    -Aristotle
    MORAL VIRTUE
    • The condition arrived at by a person who has a
    character identified out of her habitual exercise of
    particular actions.
    • The action done that normally manifests feelings and
    passions is chosen because it is the middle.
    • The rational faculty that serves as a guide for the
    proper identification of the middle is practical
    wisdom.
    “There is no
    good
    (mesotes) in
    something
    that is
    already
    considered a
    bad act.”
    Virtues and their Vices

    Excess (vice) Mean (virtue) Deficiency (vice)

    Recklessness Courage Cowardice

    Impulsiveness Self-Control Indecisiveness

    Prodigality Liberality Meanness


    Being superfluous with regard to
    manifesting a virtue is no longer an
    ethical act because one has gone
    beyond the middle. Therefore, one can
    always be excessive in her action but
    an act that is virtuous cannot go
    beyond the middle.

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