Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics

Nichomachean Ethics, Nichomachus

The ___ is a collection of Aristotle’s notes, apparently edited by his son, ___

Rights, duties

Modern ethics is focused on ___ and ___

What is good for humans, how we ought to live

Aristotle is interested in them too (indirectly), but he is more interested in ___ and ___

Foundational Experience, Plato

___ does, however, assert early in Nichomachean Ethics that one must have experience of good to comprehend ethics.

Instrumental, Intrinsic

Aristotle begins the NE considering all the disagreement among us about what is best of all the goods: pleasure, honor, love, wealth, fame, glory, etc. he uses a distinction between ___ and ___ goods to find the best, highest good

Instrumental good

Something good as a means to something else

Happiness

Seems to be the highest good for humans, we desire it for its own sake, but never, seemingly, for anything else, it seems self-sufficient

Instrumental/intrinsic good

The ___ distinction leads us to conclude the good for humans is happiness

Eudaimonia

The proper goal of human life is ___ (“happiness”, “well-being”, or the “good life”)

Unique function

He says that the good of a thing is its ___ the good of the eye is seeing, and it’s a good eye if it sees well, the good of a pen is writing, and it’s a good pen if it writes well

Seeing

The good of the eye is ___, and it’s a good eye if it sees well

Writing

The good of a pen is ___, and it’s a good pen if it writes well

Reason

The good of a human is ___, and it’s a good human if it reasons well.

Rational

Humans are ___ animals

Happiness, reasoning well

The good is ___ (most desired), and the good is ___ (by analogical argument)

Reasoning Well

Happiness=

Happiness

An activity of the soul (reasoning) in conformity with virtue (reasoning well)

Happiness

Is not a feeling, is not a condition or state of mind, is not desire-satisfaction (getting what you want), is not something you can receive

Virtue

To understand happiness, we must understand ___, doing something well or with excellence is one definition of a ___

Virtue, work

Things are said to have ___ when they perform the function proper to them well, the function that is proper to a thing is called it is ___

Work

A thing’s ___ is what only it can do, or what nothing else can do so well

Reason

For humans, this work is ___

Intellectual virtues

All 5 are ___, not moral virtues

Sophia

We are rational animals composed of theoretical wisdom

Sophia

Contemplation of eternal truths, ultimate causes, and the divine, considered a virtue because it perfects the intellect toward truth itself.

Episteme, scientia

We are rational animals composed of scientific reasoning

Episteme, scientia

Systematic, demonstrable knowledge of facts and principles, not a virtue in itself, but a capacity or discipline.

Nous

We are rational animals composed of intuitive understanding

Nous

Immediate grasp of first principles (axioms, self-evident truths), a foundation for reasoning, but not a virtue more like a faculty.

Phronesis

We are rational animals composed of practical wisdom/practical reason, prudence

Phronesis

The ability to deliberate well about human action and the good life, a virtue because it shapes moral choice and aligns reason with ethical living

Techne

We are rational animals composed of craft knowledge, skill, art

Prudence

Good deliberation, Aristotle identifies 11 moral virtues, all governed by one intellectual virtue

11 moral virtues

Courage, temperance, generosity, magnificence, magnanimity, right ambition, good temper, friendliness, truthfulness, wit, justice

Justice

All except ___ are a mean between extremes

Reason

For moral virtue, ___ must rule

Moral virtue, reason

If a person is courageous or temperate by nature they have ___, but not in a strict sense; being morally virtuous requires submitting one’s feelings and actions to ___

Morally virtuous person

Has all eleven moral virtues, each virtue is established by practice and habit, subjecting feelings and actions to reason, each virtue is settled between excess and deficiency by comprehensive understanding, or multi-track assessment

Practice, habit

Virtues are attained or acquired by ___ and ___

Acts

So, if virtues are attained by practice and habit (we must do just ___ to become just, and friendly ___ to become friendly, etc.)

Moral virtues

Are not habits, they are dispositions to act that are acquired by habituation, purposive dispositions, lying in a mean determined by reason

Possess a virtue

To ___ is to hold a complex mental framework of the right feelings, attitudes, understanding, insight, experience, etc., to have a multi-track disposition, unlike a simple habit such as being a tea drinker or coffee drinker.

Virtuous

If we do what is right due to a disposition established by practice and habit, Aristotle calls our condition ___

Continent

If we do what is right despite contrary inclination, Aristotle calls our condition ___, something inferior to virtuous.

Incontinent

If we try but fail to do what we know we should, we are called ___.

Vicious

If we have no interest even in trying to do what we know we should, we are called ___.

Happiness

An activity of the soul in conformity with virtue

Happiness, intellectual, moral

___ is primarily ___ activity, secondarily ___ activity