“Virtue” is an idea we all strive for but often struggle to define. Throughout Philosophy many have come to define virtue in different ways with arguably the two most famous being Aristotle and Kant. While the two initially seem to be conflicting with each other there also many ways in which the philosophies align with each other and this is something the paper will explore. To gain better insight to the philosopher’s arguments in regards to birtue and moral worth, we will explain both their views and discuss a scene in which we identify how the similarities in assessing the agent as well as what leads to Aristotle’s argument being more compelling in doing such.
Kant’s value of moral worth concerns itself with the importance of acting out of duty even in the presence, or lack thereof, any internal desire to execute said action. What follows is that Kant often does not disagree with Aristotle in identifying actions that are morally right. However, he believes an actions moral worth, is praiseworthy only if the action was done out of duty as opposed to any natural inclination or wanting to do the duty based on passion or emotion. The morale worth of the action is when the
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Harry’s action are deemed as such because we see his natural inclination to help and do good not solely in the aforementioned dialogue but in his character throughout the Harry Potter Saga. We see how in this specific scene Harry has little to no hesitation in choosing to save the girl and explains to the mermen he doesn’t want them to die. This would lead Aristotle to believe he was acting not solely out of duty, but simply because he wanted too. Furthermore, throughout the series we see Harry choose to do what is right with very little hesitation. This is in a way has continually formed a habit in Harry to do what is right without having to act from duty and thereby act
In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that the human good is the soul’s activity that expresses virtue. Aristotle concludes this from an invalid argument. On the one hand I do agree that the activity expressing virtue is a requirement for the human good. But on the other hand, I insist that the human good is a state and not an action. By modifying this argument, I believe we can reach a new conclusion that will help us better understand what Aristotle meant by these concepts.
Heinrichs supports his claim by stating, “The second characteristic of ethos, virtue, also has its disconnects, and it makes an especially good lie detector. Aristotle lets you put up a red flag even if you don’t know the person, even while he talks. The secret lies on Aristotle’s defintion of virtue ‘A state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean’... And you can use it to enhance your own reputation as well as evaluate the character of another person,” (Heinrichs 176). The author’s purpose is to describe the benefits of using ethos’ characteristic of virtue in order to make an argument more credible.
Jieni Peng CA1 “What Makes Right Acts Right” by W.D Ross In the article “What Makes Right Acts Right” by W.D Ross, he debates the about idea of duties and how humans in general understand if their actions are correct. Ross mentions that humans do not deliberately execute their duties because of the consequences resulting from those duties. Rather, they perform those duties because of an innate form of common sense that humans possess inside of themselves. One example of this is the act of fulfilling a promise that an individual made to themselves or others not because of the end results but because of their sense of “duty.”
Aristotle has a firm belief that human being’s actions need to be aimed at and end with some sort of good. With this is mind, he further explains that happiness is the end result of our actions. Thomas Hill, although similar in view, advocates for the importance to not only preserve our environment but connects how the preservation of nature directly relates to human virtue. In this essay, I will argue that Thomas Hill’s beliefs on human virtue along side with the preservation of our environment goes hand in hand with Aristotle’s views of the development of human virtue. Both Aristotle and Thomas Hill believe that human virtue not only has the power to control our actions positively or negatively but can also influence whether human beings
Aristotle’s claims, fortunately, recognize the limited power of the golden mean principle. In The Ethics of Aristotle, he acknowledges that “it is a difficult business to be good; because in any given case it is difficult to find the midpoint… to [act virtuously] is a rare, laudable and fine achievement” (Aristotle, 99). Acting virtuously, fundamentally, isn’t black-and-white; according to Aristotle there isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution that humankind
Having previously read the preface and examining the notes provided on Kant, I thought coming into this section the reading would be slightly easier to understand. However, as per usual for his writing, I was able to understand some of it but again got lost towards the middle and easily by the end. Since I was able to understand fairly easily the first part of the section, I found it quite interesting when he states, “Moderation in emotions and passions, self-control, and calm deliberation are not only good in many respects but even seem to constitute part of the intrinsic worth of a person” (Kant, 7).
In his book Nicomanchean Ethics Aristotle explains and differentiates voluntary and involuntary actions and expatiate on all the factor that contribute in deciding on the nature of our actions. The purpose of this differentiation is essential for the study of virtue ethics and more importantly for the study of jurisprudence “to the assigning of both of honors and of punishments” onto individuals. Aristotle firstly describes factors that causes actions to be involuntary or voluntary, such as ignorance, compulsion and choice. The understanding of such factors and their relation to our actions are also important to understand the principles explained by Aristotle. Voluntary actions is defined by Aristotle as actions that have their principle
The last theory is Aristotle’s virtue ethics which states that we should move from the concern towards good action and to focus on the concern with good character. This paper argues that Aristotle’s virtue ethics is better than the other ethical theories. The divine command theory says that what is morally right and what is morally wrong is determined by God and God alone. People who follow the divine command theory believe that God is the creator of all things, therefore, he must also be the creator of morally right and wrong acts.
To asses this situation as Aristotle would, we must look at his writings on voluntary and involuntary actions. In Aristotle’s writings he states that voluntary and involuntary action can be distinguished by several different factors. The first of these factors is the virtue of the agent, which is defined as the alignment of ones passions and their actions (pg. 307). Virtue is also concerned with praise and blame that is bestowed on the agent after the repercussions of their actions (pg. 307). Aristotle sates that virtue cannot be fundamentally decided.
Aristotle’s virtue ethics differs from other moral theories. Unlike deontology and consequentialism, virtue ethics emphasizes and describes moral characters (virtues). In my paper, I am going to explore the objection to virtue ethics from a relativist point of view and the responses to this objection that were presented in Nussbaum’s paper “A non-relative approach to virtue ethics.” Furthermore, I am going to present two out of three relativist objections to her responses that she anticipated, and her responses to them.
In this book, the author delves more on conscience and virtues and by that it becomes crucial in this research. This book is comprised of three parts namely the historical background, the contemporary dismissal of conscience and conscience as a key to virtue ethics and that which makes it crucial in this research for it presents some important topics. In the first Chapter the author discussed the classical background and different notions of famous philosophers and
The idea of virtue ethics was first introduced to the world by Aristotle over 2,300 years ago in 325 BC (Rachels 173). Virtue ethics operate on the belief that people develop good character by looking at the virtues they admire in other people and emulating them. In order to do this, a person must ask themselves what kind of person they want to be and focus on choosing characteristics not specific people to emulate. Unfortunately, virtue ethics were quickly overshadowed by other perspectives on ethical theory as Christianity gained popularity and values changed. As time went on people stopped asking themselves, “What traits make a good person?”
From our experiences, is a balance of noted subsequence, Habits of acting and principles of action allow for divergence from how these habits and/or principles correlate, the principle an embodiment of a person's constitution applied in the motivation of balance, as Aristotle emphasizes, an individual's characteristics our values. Additionally, Aristotle also exclaims, "A Nexis is an active condition, a state in which something must actively hold it, and that is what Aristotle says a moral virtue is. " That is to say, when taking a moral course of action it is a principle that is weighted. To flourish from exposure, experience right from wrong and elaborate these schemes, deepen our definitions of what it means in our extension. In a way, reminiscent of our own failures and experiences that are in fact just
Virtue ethics started drawing attention since the modern ethics exposed its limitation and reconsideration about the priority was needed. Contemporary ethics focus on “What we should do”, instead of “What kind of person we should do”. In consequence, the moral codes in modern era solely emphasizes moral duty and rules, while neglecting personality and character of individuals. Virtue ethics support the traditional criterion that consider moral virtue and personality of individuals as important. The virtue of good engineer includes creativity, good understanding of culture, morality, and capability of communication.
(Ethics 938). It is not enough to state that one is virtuous, nor is it enough for someone to be born virtuous and end there. Rather, it is the continuous pursuit, the juxtaposition of virtuous activity and of that which isn’t, that allows an individual to flourish in an Aristotelian society. We can deduce, then, that “…human