Aristotle and virtue theories

INTRODUCTION
“One may also observe in one’s travels to distant countries the feelings of recognition and
affiliation that link every human being to every other Human Being”.1

If there was an ethical turn in Greek philosophy, it began with Socrates,

who, unlike his predecessors, shunned speculation about the natural
world and focused exclusively on ethics . His brand of ethics is what we
now call “virtue ethics”, which, as the name suggests, entails an interest
in the character of a moral agent and how it relates to his overall well-
being. In general, it asks the question how one should live one’s life, with
an eye to living well through managing one’s character. Socrates’ student
Plato inherited this project, as did Plato’s student Aristotle, and it was the
dominant approach to ethics for the European philosophical schools in the
Hellenistic and Roman periods, as well as for philosophers in Europe and
in the Islamic world during the Middle Ages. The Nicomachean Ethics,
Aristotle’s seminal treatise on the subject, was translated into Arabic as
early as the 9th century C.E., and had a profound influence on medieval
Muslim philosophers such as Alfarabi and Avicenna. This approach to
ethics went into decline in Europe during the Renaissance and Early
Modern period, perhaps due to a disillusionment with its optimistic
assumptions about human nature, and was eclipsed by systems of ethics
that focused on assessments of actions (utilitarianism and deontology)
instead of on agents and their characters

According to Aristotle, a virtue is a trait of mind or character that helps

us achieve a good life, which Aristotle argues is a life in accordance with
reason. There are two types of virtue – intellectual virtues and moral
virtues. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle concentrates on moral virtues,
traits of character. Aristotle thought that the list of virtues isn’t a
miscellaneous collection, but grounded in a general, reasoned account of
what virtues are. Aristotles Notion of virtue primarily involves rationality
and the use of a person's rationality. Rationality and happiness are

1
(Aristotle, 1890) 1155a21-22

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activities of the soul, and virtue is the excellence of these activities.

Humans are the only life forms that have a soul, the source of rationality.
Thus, humans have a duty to always use their intellect. Three things are
found in the soul: emotions, capacities, and characteristics. Emotions are
things humans feel, like anguish or happiness, that are followed by pain
or pleasure.

Virtue according to Aristotle is of two kinds Intellectual AND Moral.

Intellectual virtue are those which we acquire by instruction and moral
virtue are those which we acquire by habit and constant practice. Moral
virtues, as stated by St. Thomas Aquinas, are “only those [virtues] that
are in the appetitive faculty.” Intellectual virtues are those virtues that
perfect only the intellective part of the soul and, as St. Thomas states,
“the habits of the speculative intellect do not perfect the appetitive part,
nor affect it in any way.” A moral virtue is defined as a state of character,
concerned with choice, lying in a mean, where the mean is relative to the
agent and is determined by reason in the way, Aristotle says, in which the
person of practical wisdom would determine it.

Some traits of character, such as being short-tempered or greedy, stop us

from leading a good life – these are vices. Other traits of character, such
as being kind or courageous, help us to lead a good life – and these are
the virtues. Any virtue makes the thing which has it good and able to
perform its characteristic activity well. So, in us, a virtue of character is a
disposition to feel, desire and choose ‘well’, which is necessary if we are
to live well and so achieve eudaimonia.

Virtue involves being disposed to feeling in an ‘intermediate’ way, neither

too much nor too little. Some people feel angry too often, over too many
things (perhaps they take a critical comment as an insult), or maybe
whenever they get angry, they get very angry, even at minor things.
Other people feel angry not often enough (perhaps they don’t understand
how people take advantage of them). To be virtuous is ‘to feel [passions]
at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right

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people, with the right motive, and in the right way’. This is Aristotle’s
‘doctrine of the mean’.

Discovering the psychology of Aristotle was a bit more challenging, as for

the fact that he is much better known for his ethics. Association was the
primary psychological belief in which Aristotle took stock. He believed that
the plant that felt the heat of the sun stretched its limbs to absorb more
heat. The plant did not know whether it was light or dark it reacted as it
would in the direction of heat. In the same manner of speaking the plant
that catches the fly does not know the fly is there, but merely reacts to its
sensation influence on the tips of the cilia of their leaves. Aristotle
distinguishes us from animals in our ability to reason, which has been
disputed in current times. He also dabbles in our human makeup and
separates the body as a tool for the spirit. Our ethics come from the spirit
as our bodies may be considered animalistic.

The relationship between Aristotle s ethics and his psychology are not as
obvious as the differences. Aristotle has been criticized for thinking up
theories that conflict his basic theories, but one who thinks constantly
cannot be held back by one s own thoughts. As we know by this point we
are all trying to gain happiness through being a good person. A person of
virtue. As for the connection, another difficulty arises, I believe that the
plants and animals without reason do certain activities to better
themselves and make themselves happier. If they are without reason
then their activities are not thought out and therefore instinctual or might
I say subconsciously done. So how can be if he specifically demands that
being aware of your actions is the true path to virtue? This is my only
connection an anti-connection.

The doctrine of the mean entails that we can (often, if not always) place a
virtue ‘between’ two vices. Just as there is a right time, object, person,
etc., at which to feel fear (or any emotion), some people can feel fear too

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often, about too many things, and towards too many people, or they get
too afraid of things that aren’t that dangerous. Other people can feel
afraid not often enough, regarding too few objects and people. Someone
who feels fear ‘too much’ is cowardly. Someone who feels fear ‘too little’
is rash. Someone who has the virtue relating to fear is courageous. The
virtue is the ‘intermediate’ state between the two vices of ‘too much’ and
‘too little’. Aristotle presents the following examples. For many states of
character, he notes, we don’t have a common name

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According to the old Greek thinkers, there are in all seven virtues of which
four are called Cardinal Virtues while rest three are
called Theological virtues. The “Cardinal” ones are those which all civilised
people recognise. The “Theological” are those which, as a rule, only
Christians know about.

Plato identifies four “cardinal virtues” that are necessary for a happy
individual and that are necessary for a good society. He also believed that
the ideal state should be with people with such virtues. The four cardinal
virtues are prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude {or Courage}.

Prudence
Prudence literally means “discretion in practical affairs”. Prudence is called
the charioteer of the other virtues because it guides and sets the rule and
reason for the other virtues. Prudence is the footprint of Wisdom.

In public servants, the qualities like courage, perseverance, loyalty and

fidelity to principles matter. But different circumstances may demand
different attributes. If we have to settle on one quality above the others,
it would be prudence, which encompasses practical wisdom, insight, and
knowledge. Prudence is right reason in action. Prudence plays a vital role
in terms of guiding and regulating all the other virtues. For example,
courage in the pursuit of a foolish policy can lead to a catastrophe. For
these reasons, prudence is the charioteer of the virtues.

Justice

Justice is the flawless order by which every human being do their own
business, the right man in the right place, i.e. the class and division of
citizens. Justice is a more abstract than the other virtues. He states that
justice in the State means justice in the individuals who form the State.
Justice states civic strengths that underlie healthy community life.

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Teamwork: working well as a member of a group or team; being loyal to

the group.

Equality: Treating all people the same according to notions of fairness and
justice.

Headship: organizing group activities and seeing that they happen.

Temperance

Temperance is a strength that protects against excess; and consists self-

regulation and obedience to authority. It suggests harmony among
conflicting elements. The virtue of temperance is the friendship of the
ruling and the subject principles, both in the State and in the individual.
Temperance does not detain the reasonable pleasures that are contrary to
our reason. It requires us to prepare ourselves even when we are not
faced with an immediate temptation. The lack of temperance challenges
prudence, i.e., being careful about one’s choices; not taking undue risks;
not saying or doing things that might later be regretted.

Fortitude / Courage

Courage is bravery based on justice. It removes obstacles that come in

the way of justice. It is a willingness to sacrifice one’s own life for others.
It enables us to face the difficulty that comes in the way of justice. Fear is
the reaction that comes naturally to any threat.

A brave man acts in the face of his reasonable fear. It is the never-failing
salvation of the opinions which law and education have prescribed
concerning dangers. It is the emotional strengths that involve the
exercise of will to accomplish goals in the face of opposition, external or
internal.

Valour: not shrinking from threat

Determination: finishing what one starts

Reliability: speaking the truth but presenting oneself in a genuine way

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Vigour: approaching life with excitement and energy

LITERATURE REVIEW
Xianzhong, H. (2007, April 10). Justice as a virtue: An analysis of Aristotle’s virtue
of justice. frointers in philosophy of china , pp. 265-279.
People currently regard justice as the main principle of institutions and
society, while in ancient Greek people took it as the virtue of citizens.
Since virtue can be said to be a specific individual character, Aristotle
also defines the virtue of justice as the character of justice, with which
citizens act justly and desire to do what is just. The virtue of justice is
also an individual ethical virtue, differing from others for it is at the
same time a social ethic. We can call the virtue of justice a “non-
individual individual ethical virtue.” It has been explained as between
pure altruism and egoism, which is a wrong explanation. John Rawls an
American philosopher regards justice as the first virtue of social
institutions, challenging Aristotle’s virtue of justice, an assertion which
also needs further deliberation. Aristotle seems most interested in
establishing a conception of the formal structure of justice, which seems
to reflect a conception of desert. He distinguishes within particular justice
between justice in distribution and justice in rectification. The former, he
claims, adheres to a kind of proportionality, in which what each deserves
is proportional to the relationship between the contributions. If A
contributes twice as much as B (of whatever the metric of merit is
relevant in some particular case), then A’s return ought also to be twice
B’s. This conception of distributive justice obviously lends itself to “goods
of fortune” — and to some goods, like wealth, more obviously than others
— but it need not in principle be confined to such goods, although the
examples Aristotle provides suggest such applications. Aristotle seems
torn between a conception of justice as a virtue in his distinctive
understanding of what a virtue is — with a requirement that one have all
the virtues to have any (Nicomachean EthicsVI.13), and rooted in the
doctrine of the mean — and justice as having the form of a formal

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normative structure, to which the virtue threatens to become subsidiary.

All this is to leave aside questions of the relation between this particular
sense of justice and political justice, and the role of the virtue of justice in
the individual as it contributes to justice in the polis.

Korsgaard, C. (1986). Aristotle on Function and Virtue. History of Philosophy

Quarterly, 3(3), 259-279. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27743773

Virtue ethics is a broad term for theories that emphasize the role
of character and virtue in moral philosophy rather than either doing one’s
duty or acting in order to bring about good consequences. A virtue ethicist
is likely to give you this kind of moral advice: “Act as a virtuous person
would act in your situation.”

Most virtue ethics theories take their inspiration from Aristotle who
declared that a virtuous person is someone who has ideal character traits.
These traits derive from natural internal tendencies, but need to be
nurtured; however, once established, they will become stable. For
example, a virtuous person is someone who is kind across many
situations over a lifetime because that is her character and not because
she wants to maximize utility or gain favors or simply do her duty.
Unlike deontological and consequentialist theories, theories of virtue
ethics do not aim primarily to identify universal principles that can be
applied in any moral situation. And virtue ethics theories deal with wider
questions—“How should I live?” and “What is the good life?” and “What
are proper family and social values?

Raising objections to other normative theories and defining itself in

opposition to the claims of others, was the first stage in the development
of virtue ethics. Virtue ethicists then took up the challenge of developing
full fledged accounts of virtue that could stand on their own merits rather
than simply criticize consequentialism and deontology. These accounts
have been predominantly influenced by the Aristotelian understanding of
virtue. While some virtue ethics take inspiration from Plato's, the Stoics',

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Aquinas', Hume's and Nietzsche's accounts of virtue and ethics,

Aristotelian conceptions of virtue ethics still dominate the field. There are
three main strands of development for virtue ethics: Eudaimonism, agent-
based theories and the ethics of care. Modern virtue ethics takes its
inspiration from the Aristotelian understanding of character and virtue.
Aristotelian character is, importantly, about a state of being. It's about
having the appropriate inner states. For example, the virtue of kindness
involves the right sort of emotions and inner states with respect to our
feelings towards others. Character is also about doing. Aristotelian theory
is a theory of action, since having the virtuous inner dispositions will also
involve being moved to act in accordance with them. Realizing that
kindness is the appropriate response to a situation and feeling
appropriately kindly disposed will also lead to a corresponding attempt to
act kindly.

Another distinguishing feature of virtue ethics is that character traits are

stable, fixed, and reliable dispositions. If an agent possesses the
character trait of kindness, we would expect him or her to act kindly in all
sorts of situations, towards all kinds of people, and over a long period of
time, even when it is difficult to do so. A person with a certain character
can be relied upon to act consistently over a time.

DISCUSSION

Politics and virtue

Aristotle's Ethics and Politics remain two of his most relevant works. It
has been said that the Ethics is still the best springboard for the
consideration of ethical problems and dilemmas. While Aristotle's answers
are objectionable to many, the questions he presents are as pertinent to
modern times as they ever were.
The purpose of ethics for Aristotle is simply to find the ultimate purpose of
human life, once again demonstrating his emphasis on teleology. Ethics
falls under the category of practical sciences, since its concern is not

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knowledge for its own sake but rather for the purpose of application.
Aristotle first recognizes that happiness is the ultimate good, since all
other goods are intermediate while happiness is final. We pursue other
goods to achieve happiness, but happiness is valuable in itself.

The problem then becomes the question of how to achieve happiness.

Pleasure is undeniably the motivation behind many actions, but it puts
humans on the level of animals. Honor is another possibility, but it places
too much emphasis on the praise of others. Aristotle concludes that the
means of happiness–and hence the purpose of human existence–is virtue.
Virtue involves habit and choice. By making the proper decisions, we
eventually develop a virtuous habit or disposition, so that we need not run
through the catalogue of options every time a moral dilemma presents
itself. Rather, we act according to our disposition, which has been
cultivated by past choices.

Aristotle concludes the Ethics with a discussion of the highest form of

happiness: a life of intellectual contemplation. Since reason is what
separates humanity from animals, its exercise leads man to the highest
virtue. As he closes the argument, he notes that such a contemplative life
is impossible without the appropriate social environment, and such an
environment is impossible without the appropriate government. Thus the
end of Ethics provides the perfect segue into the Politics.

Morality and Ethics

In Ancient Greek history, the Greek term for ethics is êthos and means
something like character. When Aristotle analyses the good life in the
Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics, he therefore focuses on the
central topic of good and bad character traits that is virtues and vices. In
this original sense, ethics means an analysis about the character or
character traits. In Ancient Roman thought, which was essentially
influenced by Cicero, the Greek term ethikos (the adjective to êthos) was
translated with the Latin term moralis (the adjective of mores) whereas

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the Latin term mores, in fact, means habits and customs. It is possible to
translate the Greek term êthos with habits and customs, but it is more
likely that the translation of ethikos with moralis was a mistranslation.
The term moralis rather refers to the Greek ethos whose primary meaning
is habits and customs. If the term morality refers to mores, then the term
morality means the totality of all habits and customs of a given
community. The term moralis became a terminus technicus in the Latin-
shaped philosophy, which covers the present meaning of the term. In
modern times, the habits and customs of a given community are termed
‘conventions’, which are authoritative for the social life in society.
Morality, however, is not simply a matter of mere convention but the
latter often conflicts with morality (for example, an immoral convention),
hence, it seems inappropriate to shorten the term in this way. At present,
there are, at least, four

1. Ethics and morality as distinct spheres: Ethics has to do with the

pursuit of one’s own happiness or well-being and private lifestyle,
that is, how we should live to make good lives for ourselves.
Morality has to do with other people’s interests and deontological
constraints. different possibilities to distinguish between ethics and
morality:
2. The equation of ethics and morality.
3. Morality as a special field in the ethical realm: Ethics is the generic
term for ethical and moral issues in the above-mentioned sense.
Morality is a special part of ethics.
4. Morality as the object of ethics: Ethics is the philosophical theory of
morality which is the systematic analysis of moral norms and
values.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aristotle, ., Ross, W. D., & Brown, L. (2009). The Nicomachean ethics. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

Bostock, David (2000). Aristotle’s Ethics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Broadie, Sarah (1991). Ethics with Aristotle. New York: Oxford University Press.

LeBar, Mark and Slote, Michael, "Justice as a Virtue", The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Spring 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta

Korsgaard, C. (1986). Aristotle on Function and Virtue. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 3(3),
259-279

Trianosky, G.V. "What is Virtue Ethics All About?" in Statman D., Virtue Ethics (Cambridge:
Edinburgh University Press, 1997)

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