How Does Aristotle Define Moral Virtue In Nicomachean Ethics Essay

Virtue encompasses many moral characteristics which Sir Gawain accurately displays to the reader throughout the plot. One such idea of virtue is that of loyalty and courage.

Socrates started his life as an average Athen citizen. His parents worked, making an honest living. But as Socrates grew up, he began to realize that his mind questioned things and wondered how come no one else questioned the same things or at least think about the answers to the questions that were not answered. So, as his mind kept wandering, he began to acknowledge the questions that were not answered and sought for those answers. He ended up believing and teaching things to other people, whether it went against the way the Athen government or not, he still continued his work. Making enemies and becoming the topic of conversation, the Athenians began to view Socrates as a threat to their beliefs and way of life and sought to end it. In order to end this, Socrates was accused of blasphemy (Mod1SlideC7). Socrates’s accusers took him to court and after Socrates did not play their game by asking to be sent into exile, and in the end, he was sentenced to death. After reading the textbook and Plato’s writing influenced by Socrates, I realized that in the period of his life Socrates was indeed truly a threat to the Athens society, because he looked for answers that no one else bothered to find which challenged their culture.

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.

According to Aristotle, virtue is defined as a disposition to behave in the right manner and exists as a state between two extremes: deficiency and excess. These extremes are vices. For example, when donating to a charity, you should be doing so for the right reason, and not for personal

Socrates Socrates once stated, “As for me, all I know is that I know nothing” ("Socrates Quotes.") Socrates was a Greek Philosopher who is also known as the father of Western Philosophy. He created philosophy methods and taught a group of philosophers including Plato. It is said that Socrates had did

In thinking of Socrates we must recognize that what we have is four secondhand sources depicting him. That of Plato, Xenophanes, Aristophanes, and Aristotle. All having radically different accounts on Socrates and his views. Out of all them we consider Plato’s to be the most possible account, even though we face a problem of different versions of Socrates. The existence and continual study of Socrates’ philosophy regardless of differing accounts is astonishing in itself since it survived not through the specific philosopher, but through other people. Which is a testament of the impact that a man, such as Socrates, can make. When we think of Plato, who is regarded as a father of western philosophy, we are quick to think of his major work The Republic, his student Aristotle, and his writing on Socrates. (We think of his writings on Socrates as mere footnotes in philosophical thought without examining them.) “Nothing comes from nothing,” Parmenides proudly claimed, and this philosophical doctrine applies to Plato’s thought.

Aristotle wrote Nicomachean Ethics in which he explains what his notion of virtue is and how it relates to good. Also, he demonstrates the relationship between virtue and character, how virtue develops character. Furthermore, he explains his belief of the good life for humans.

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Book ll, is about his idea of how people should live a virtuous life. Throughout this book, he explains that humans learn virtue from instructions and we learn virtue from practice too. Virtue is something that is very important because it is a moral habit that results in keeping our moral values. Aristotle believed that nobody is born with virtue, everyone has to work at it daily. After reading Nicomachean ethics, Book ll, my main conclusion of it is that us as humans are better off being virtuous than simply doing what we feel like doing at any moment in time.

Virtue Ethics is the theory of morality that makes virtue the central concern. Aristotle is a philosopher known for virtue ethics, his theories relate to society, self, education, and metaphysics. Virtue ethics rely on ourselves and it doesn't have anything to do with society or religion. When it comes to

Virtue in general means admirable character trait to habitually act in a manner that benefits ourselves and others. According to Aristotle, virtue means to act in a manner that is not only for ones' own sake but also done mindfully, reasonably, and voluntarily. He explains virtue as habits, extremes, and

Virtue ethics are ethical theories which focus on moral character rather than right action. The main focus of Aristotle’s ethics is on the person’s character, you must try to become a person with good character regardless of thinking about any end, outcome, happiness, consequence, action, reward or punishment. If you will be able to have a good and virtuous character right actions will take place automatically. The actions of a person with good character are right actions and the actions of a person with a bad character are wrong actions. Virtue ethics do not require you to focus on doing your duty or on actions that would bring about good consequences. Virtues are character traits when once established through nurturing become permanent and stable. For example, a virtuous person is someone who will be kind across most of the situations in their lifetime because that is their character and not because they are not being deontological or teleological.

In this essay, I will be discussing Aristotle’s conception of the “good life” which he outlined in the Nicomachean Ethics. As we will see, the “good life” for man according to Aristotle is one where we perform the particular activity which is distinctly ours and guides us towards eudaimonia – sometimes translated as ‘happiness’ or ‘well-being’. He shows us how the other conflicting depictions of the ‘good life’ are misguided, and how we should aim for a life of reason. First, however, I will discuss briefly what Aristotle meant by the term ‘good’ and then move on to how he arrived at the conclusion on human happiness.

It has become apparent throughout time that moral conflicts are constantly challenging engineers. Whether it is related to infamous incidents that led to the downfall of professionals or the daily obstacles that engineers face, moral excellence is of the utmost importance in any field. Intellectual and character virtues, as exemplified in the philosophical context, are essential to engineering ethics. Of these virtues, engineers should strive for honesty, courage and fairness. Achieving the aforementioned moral excellences will allow engineers to conduct good judgments and commitment to their professional life.

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. In utilitarian and Kantian view of ethics, such virtuous values are not taken into consideration. This short paper suggests how future engineers should apply the virtues and excellences in their fields and why virtuous engineers are more likely to contribute to society and make it better.

Aristotle advanced the philosophy of ethics, where he demonstrated that it is a means of achieving an end to happiness. However, happiness means many things to different people. To Aristotle, the most adequate way to pursue happiness is through the virtue of excellence. In his writings, Aristotle connected his therory of virtue to economics, and leadership as well. It is a matter of connecting ones personal ethics to that of ones business ethics., simply because Aristotle made no disticntion between ethics and politics. Aristotle illustrated the purpose of ethics in leadership in that he believed that virtue is ingrained in character (Ciulla, 2003).