plato and driver

How Should I Live?

  • Socratic perspective: The unexamined life is not worth living.

  • Key focus on the definition and pursuit of a good/ worthwhile life.

  • Philosophical Influences:

    • Plato

    • Aristotle

    • Epictetus

    • Buddhism

    • Confucianism

Aristotle: An Overview

  • Historical Context:

    • Lived from 384-322 BC, originally from Stagira in Macedonia.

    • Studied under Plato at the Academy in Athens for 20 years.

    • Founded the Lyceum.

Understanding Aristotle’s Ethics

  • Type of Ethics: Virtue Ethics

    • Focuses on how to live well throughout one’s life.

    • Central inquiry: "What kind of person should I become to live well?"

  • Practical Nature of Ethics:

    • Beyond knowledge; aims to cultivate goodness.

    • Ethics studied not just for understanding but for becoming virtuous.

    • Encourages responsibility for the kind of person one is becoming and fulfilling one’s purpose.

Teleological Worldview

  • Defined:

    • Teleology (Greek: telos, "end" and logos, "reason") refers to explanations based on purpose or function.

  • Aristotelian Perspective:

    • Nature is purposive, contrary to random physical causation.

  • Notable Quote from NE (Nicomachean Ethics):

    • "Every art and every inquiry…is thought to aim at some good" (p. 388).

    • This good is an ultimate goal or end.

All Actions Aim at Some Good

  • Fundamental Observation:

    • Every action is performed for a specific purpose.

  • Example of Hierarchical Ends:

    • Studying → earning a degree → obtaining a job → living well.

The Concept of a Final End

  • Argument for a Final End:

    • Ahighest good must exist to avoid an endless cycle of desires.

    • Characteristics of the highest good:

    • Final: chosen for its own sake.

    • Self-sufficient: fulfills all needs without lacking anything.

  • Aristotle identifies this final good as Happiness.

Defining Happiness

  • Happiness (Greek: eudaimonia):

    • Equated to ‘living well,' ‘flourishing,’ and ‘perfecting oneself.’

  • Contrast with Modern Notions of Happiness:

    • Common interpretations of happiness may diverge from Aristotle’s conception.

    • Not about desiring happiness as an end, but recognizing it as a universal desire.

Misconceptions about Happiness

  • Common Misattributions:

    • Pleasure: equating happiness to a life of sensory indulgence (animalistic).

    • Honours: dependent on others' perceptions, not self-derived.

    • Wealth: only valuable for its purchasing power, not an intrinsic good.

  • Final good must be intrinsic rather than instrumental.

The Function Argument and Happiness

  • Definition of Unique Function (Ergon):

    • The ultimate good of anything is fulfilled by performing its unique function excellently.

  • Human Good (Eudaimonia):

    • Found through rational activity performed virtuously.

  • Key Inquiry: What defines a human's unique function?

Unique Function of Human Beings

  • Rational Activity:

    • Distinction between human beings and other living entities: nutrition, sensation, and movement are shared.

    • Defined Unique Function: Rational activity, which is an activity of the soul that follows a rational principle (N.E. p. 389).

    • Importance of Reason: "Reason is our essence."

Rational Activity and Virtue

  • Definition of Good Human Life:

    • Rational activity exhibited excellently/virtuously over time.

    • Requires sustained action across a complete life.

Understanding Virtue

  • Definition of Excellence (Virtue, Greek: Aretē):

    • Achieved through operational excellence in fulfilling the unique function of an entity.

  • Potential for Reason:

    • Needs to be actualized through intentioned exercise leading to excellence.

  • Two Broad Domains for Development:

    1. Moral Virtue (Phronesis): Practical wisdom.

    2. Intellectual Virtue (Sophia): Philosophic wisdom.

Intellectual Virtue

  • Characteristics:

    • Consists of habits and attitudes that help discover truth.

    • Concerning unchanging and universal truths.

  • Quote about Intellectual Virtue:

    • "Intellectual virtue owes both its birth and its growth to teaching (for this reason, it requires experience and time)" (N.E. p. 389).

Moral Virtue

  • Aim of Moral Virtue:

    • Creating excellences of character; stable states concerned with choice.

  • Concept of the Mean:

    • Lying between two extremes (excess and deficiency) determined by reason.

    • Examples include courage (mean) between cowardice (deficiency) and rashness (excess).

Moral Virtue Defined

  • Description:

    • Concerned with passions and actions; there are excess, defect, and intermediate.

  • Quote about Moral Virtue:

    • "Moral virtue…is concerned with passions and actions…to feel them at the right times…is characteristic of virtue." (N.E. p. 392).

Aiming for the Mean

  • The Mean Concept:

    • The balanced point between excess and deficiency based on the context.

    • Defined as not mere average, but an excellent, context-sensitive balance.

  • Actions rarities:

    • Some actions do not admit a mean (e.g., envy, shamelessness, theft).

Examples of Virtue and Vice

  • Deficiency (vice) | Mean (virtue) | Excess (vice)

    • Cowardice | Courage | Rashness

    • Insensibility | Temperance | Self-indulgence

    • Unirascibility | Good temper | Irascibility

    • Quarrelsomeness | Friendliness | Flattery

    • Self-deprecation | Truthfulness | Boastfulness

    • Boorish Wit | Buffoonery

Acquiring Moral Virtue

  • Learning Approach:

    • Process involves practicing virtues similar to learning arts or skills.

    • "Virtues we get by first practicing them…we become just by doing just acts".

  • Role of Habits:

    • Importance of training and practice to develop moral character in childhood.

Character Traits and Repetitive Practice

  • Virtue as a Skill:

    • Moral virtue developed through habitual practice.

  • Emphasis:

    • Becoming good through actions rather than nature or mere instruction.

    • Aim at the mean; follow virtuous exemplars; practice to harmonize desires with reason.

Role of Practical Wisdom (Phronesis)

  • Conceptual Importance:

    • Practical wisdom necessary for judging the mean.

  • Deliberation Requirement:

    • Ability to deliberate effectively on how to live isn’t about cleverness but grounded in experience.

The Truly Morally Virtuous Individual

  • Characteristics:

    • Stable moral character.

    • Natural disposition to choose the mean.

    • Right actions based on perfected reasoning and intrinsic motivation.

    • Experience pleasure in virtuous actions, aligned desires, and harmony of self.

Critique and Reflection on Aristotle’s Ethics

  • Questions to Consider:

    1. Connection of Aristotle's ethics to personal life.

    2. Strengths of Aristotle’s arguments regarding the pursuit of well-living.

    3. Issues raised by Julia Driver and relevant challenges.

Challenges in Virtue Ethics

  • Questions for Consideration:

    1. Guidance in Action:

    • How much is aiming at the mean sufficient? Examples of honest behavior in dilemmas?

    1. Stability of Character Traits:

    • Are moral traits genuinely stable, or contextually influenced?

    1. Essentialism and Human Nature:

    • Do humans possess an essence? What’s the implication of defining goodness through rational activity?

    1. Following Virtuous Persons:

    • Risks of selecting non-virtuous examples and biases in perceptions of virtue from tradition.