ethics virtue ethics of aristotle

Philosophical inquiry into ethics

– Began with ancient Greeks; sophists focused on man as a human person and thinking being

Ethical relativism

– Herodotus claimed what is good is relative to culture;

Protagoras: "man is the measure of all things."

Pain

Objective ethical standards (Socrates) – Good and evil, not pleasure and ___.

leads

Justice (Socrates) – Proper balance of rational, spirited, and appetitive soul; well-ordered soul ___ to happiness.

Function of man

– Humans must fulfill their own function; injustices occur when humans do others' function

Aristotle

(384-322 BCE) – Student of Plato; influenced by Socrates and Plato’s ethical principles.

Lyceum

– Founded in Athens; dedicated to Apollo Lyceus; students called Peripatetics; focus on natural, anthropological, and scientific studies.

Death

– Fled Athens after anti-Macedonian backlash; died 322 BCE in Chalcis.

Philosophy

– Suspicious of Plato's otherworldly elements; emphasized knowledge via senses; act and potency principle; hylomorphic doctrine.

Human person(Aristotle)

– Composite of body and soul; body and soul inseparable; soul forms entelechy of body.

Parts of the soul:

• Irrational soul – Vegetative, Desiring (epithumia), Spirited (thumos), Will (boulesis)

• Rational soul – Practical intellect (phronesis), Speculative intellect (theoretike dianoia)

Reason

– Distinguishing human attribute; speculative intellect connected to reason; teleological (telos = end/purpose).

Eudaimonia

– Highest/fullest happiness; fully alive, vital, alert; not based on pleasure or wealth.

Pleasure and wealth

– Not ultimate good; life of reason, contemplation, and social engagement necessary for eudaimonia.

Moral virtue

– Measured activity following mesotes (just middle), avoiding extremes; habitual action; right intention; proceeds from contemplation (phronesis).

Communal life

– Polis = proper context for moral virtue; human function realized through participation in society.

Function and excellence

– Acting according to function (ergon) with excellence (arête) in habitual fashion establishes character and human value.

Critique

– Eudaimonia as highest happiness may conflict with mesotes; virtuous acts must be voluntary; habitual good deeds can become involuntary; Aristotle’s concept of goodness may be context-specific to elite society.