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Aristotle And Aristotle: The Soul Of Man

906 Words4 Pages

According to Aristotle, nature has built man the desire to be virtuous and is an expression of our identity. The soul of man is a complex structure composed of two parts: rational and irrational parts. When desires conform to reason, they are rational. Meanwhile, when desires do not conform to reason, they are irrational. Ethical virtues arise at the interferences of these two parts. Where and when the rational part of the soul controls the irrational part is an area of mortality. It is important to address that these ethical virtues reflect the actual human nature of man-- God does not affect the human nature and animals do not have a mind according to Aristotle. When the rational part of the soul controls desires the result is moral virtue. This is only possible or confined to cases where a choice is possible. Aristotle believes that if the properties of the body, soul, and mind are given to man, then the ethical virtues are formed in the process of individual activities. Ethical virtues expresses man’s ability to make the right choices and how a person acts, depends on the structure of the soul. This arises the question: how does man know what is a virtuous act? Aristotle believes that the right virtue is the golden mean between two vices. For example, the two vices of courage is rashness and cowardice with the golden mean being courage. Man can learn to be virtuous by emulating moral exemplars who possess good virtue. Overtime, good virtue can be learned through

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