Unit 4 Study Guide - Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

What is Aristotle’s position on happiness (Eudaimonia), in regards to life and its pursuits?

• Some goods are ends (goals), and some are means to an end

• Ends are more valuable then means, but…

• Every activity leads to a product

What is the human’s purpose, and how does such purpose align with his/her  ability to achieve the end that it seeks?

• Achieve Virtue

• The end is happiness, which results from excellent reasoning and from living in accordance with excellent reasoning (virtue)

Virtue (arte)

what makes us function well; usually understood as a disposition or state of a person

How is virtue achieved or destroyed?

• Achieved: fortune, success, and balance

• Destroyed: excess and deficiency

What is the list of virtues?

• courage

• truthfulness

• generosity

• justice

• friendliness

• cleanliness

• temperance

• prudence

• compassion

What virtues are highlighted for the benefit of class instruction?

• Virtue of Thought: wisdom, comprehension, etc.

• Virtue of Character: generosity, temperance, courage, etc.

What is Aristotle’s philosophy of the mean? (the middle ground or balance between vices)

• it’s different for each person

• modesty > humility

  • make it happen

• Honesty > secrecy & loquacity

• Courage > cowardice & rashness

what are the differences between Character and Intellectual Virtues?

• Moral virtues are excellences of moral character that include traits like courage, generosity, honesty, and compassion

• Intellectual virtues are excellences of intellectual character, and are essentially the intellectual counterpart to the moral virtues

what is the difference between Virtue and Justice?

Justice is virtue actualized and virtue is moral excellence

What happened during Yale’s Baby Lab Experiments?

• They wanted to see if humans are “born good”

• They used puppets to play out different scenarios

• Wanted to see if babies have bias and would choose the “good” puppet over the “bad” puppet

How did the results from the Yale experiment reflect or reject Aristotle’s philosophy?

• It rejected Aristotle’s philosophy

• Aristotle believed that people learned to be good aka the Golden Mean

What are the differences between voluntary and involuntary actions?

• Involuntary: forced action is one in which the agent does not participate

• Voluntary: includes thought, deliberation, and choice/decision

In Ignorance

Acting in ignorance means someone acts but is not aware of his actions (being drunk)

By Ignorance

Acting by ignorance means someone acts thinking it is a good course of action, but their thinking is incorrect

What is Aristotle’s Continuum Theory of virtue and vice?

every virtue is argued to be a mean, or middle ground, between two vices, one of excess and the other of deficiency

How does the Tripartite Soul use Aristotle’s Continuum Theory to achieve its pursuits

the three parts of the soul allow for balance, which is in line with Aristotle’s Continuum Theory

What is the beginning of an action?

Thoughts, motivated by spirit and gut

What is the relationship between desire, thought, deliberation, and choice?

They each work within us to create balance and help us achieve virtue

What was Aristotle’s school of thought?

Peripatetic school of philosophy in the Lyceum

What is Aristotle’s background?

His father, Nicomachus, was the personal physician to King Amyntas of Macedon. While he was young, Aristotle learned about biology and medical information, which was taught by his father.

What was Aristotle’s outlook on life?

the purpose and ultimate goal in life is to achieve eudaimonia ('happiness')

What was Aristotle’s tenets of Nicomachean Ethics?

• certain goods (e.g., life and health) are necessary preconditions for happiness and that

• others (wealth, friends, fame, honor) are embellishments that promote or fill out a good life for a virtuous person, but that

• it is the possession and exercise of virtue which is the core constitutive element of happiness.

How do you cite Aristotle’s philosophy?

Bekker Numbers

What is the plot of “Pay it Forward”?

The story of a social studies teacher who gives an assignment to his junior high school class to think of an idea to change the world for the better, then put it into action. When one young student creates a plan for "paying forward" favors, he not only affects the life of his struggling single mother, but he sets in motion an unprecedented wave of human kindness which, unbeknownst to him, has blossomed into a profound national phenomenon.

How do you apply Aristotle’s ‘Virtue Ethics Theory’ to real life situations?

by honing virtuous habits, people will likely make the right choice when faced with ethical challenges

Eugene Simonet

• History Teacher

• Abused when he was a child

• Struggled to accept love

Arlene McKinney

• Alcoholic

• Wanted love, but kept seeking it in the wrong people

• Did everything for Trevor

Trevor McKinney

• started pay it forward

• saw a lot of evil in the world and wanted to make a change, even if it was small

• cared for the people around him

Jerry

• homeless man

• first of the three people on Trevor’s pay it forward list

• Basically kick started the movement

Chris Chandler

• News Reporter

• Spent the whole movie searching for the person who started Pay it Forward

Sidney Parker

• Ex-convict

• was helped by Trevor’s grandma

• helped the lawyer’s daughter in the hospital

Mr. Thorsen

• Lawyer

• gave his car to Chris (the reporter)

• his daughter was the one Sidney helped in the hospital

Grace (Grandma)

• homeless

• alcoholic

• helped Sidney

• wanted to be better for Arlene and Trevor

What is the order of the Pay it Forward movement?

Trevor —> Jerry —> Arlene —> Grace (Grandma) —> Sidney —> Thorsen’s Daughter/Mr. Thorsen —> Chris