Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics: Virtue Ethics

Question 1

are normative ethical theories that emphasize virtues of mind and moral character over duties or rules that govern one’s acts (Deontology) and those that emphasize the consequences of actions (Consequentialism).

Answer 1

Virtue ethics

Question 2

Focused on the means and mindset of the person who is doing the action.
•According to a rule or duty.
•External rules
Example:
•Do not cheat in accordance to the policy of the school.

Answer 2

Deontology

Question 3

•“The end justify the means”
•The act is good if the result is good.
Example:
•Authoritarian parents

Answer 3

Consequentialism

Question 4

What are the strands of Virtue Ethics?

Answer 4

1. Eudaimonism
2. Care Ethics
3. Agent-based Approach

Question 5

A moral philosophy specifying that the ultimate goal of an individual, which refers to happiness, well-being, or the good life.

It is not subjective; it is an objective state that does not depend on individual feelings

Answer 5

Eudaimonism

Question 6

Normative ethical theory that believes moral actions are centered on the virtues of care and benevolence.

Further, this theory asserts that relationships are ontologically basic to humans.

Answer 6

Care ethics

Question 7

Who are the proponents of Agent-based Approach?

Answer 7

• Proponent: Michael Slote and Lina Zagzebski

Question 8

He understands rightness in terms of good motives and wrongness in terms of having bad motives.

Answer 8

Michael Slote

Question 9

She believed that we have moral examplars that makes us virtuously motivated.

Answer 9

Lina Zagzebski

Question 10

•Ancient Greek philosopher and scientist considered as one of the greatest thinkers in philosophy, politics, psychology, and ethics.

•He was born to an aristocratic family in Stagira, Peninsula of Macedonia (North Greece) in 384 B.C.

•His father, Nicomachus, was the court physician to the Macedonian royal family, and he was trained first in medicine and educated as a member of the aristocracy

•At the age of 17, he moved to Athens to complete his education in philosophy at Plato’s famous Academy, where he remained for nearly twenty years, as a star student, then as a teacher and later, as an influential philosopher.

In 343-340 BC, He served as tutor of Alexander the Great in Macedonia.

•In 335 BC, He founded his own philosophical school, the Lyceum, in Athens, where he spent most of the rest of his life studying, teaching, and writing.

•He had written around 150 philosophical treatises.

•Unfortunately, most of them were lost and only a few have survived.

•His works evidently showed the influence of Plato and the Academy.

•Some of his most notable works include the Nichomachean Ethics, Polities, Metaphysics, Poetics, and Prior Analytics

Answer 10

Aristotle

Question 11

It means “victor in battle.”

• Traditionally, it is believed that the book was named after Aristotle’s son. however, it is also the name of Aristotle’s father.

Answer 11

Nicomachus

Question 12

For Aristotle what is good?

Answer 12

the good is “that at which a thing is aimed” or the “END” of something.

For example, the end of medicine is health, and the end of education is success.”

Question 13

It is a kind of good that is never valued or desired for its own sake and only for the sake of something else. This is the good that is used to attain other things that are good.

Answer 13

Instrumental good

Question 14

It is a kind of good which is valued for its own sake and never for the sake of something else. According to Aristotle, the only one that qualifies as such—a good that is desired for the sake of itself-is happiness.

Answer 14

Intrinsic good

Question 15

The Ultimate Purpose of Human Existence:

Answer 15

HAPPINESS

Question 16

According to Aristotle, the ultimate good or end is happiness

To be an ultimate end, an act must be self-sufficient and final.
The Greek word for “happiness” is _____________

•Scholars say that eudaimonia means something more than “flourishing” or
“thriving.”

It is a final goal or end that involves the totality of human life.

• It is not short-lived
• It doesn’t refer to pleasurebale sensation

Answer 16

• eudaimonia

Question 17

What is the Path to Happiness?

Answer 17

Having a virtue!

Question 18

•a skill, a way of living, something that can one really be learned through experience.
•It is not an instinctive act
“excellence of any kind.”
“What makes it as it is”

Example: What makes a knife knife is its function to cut something.

Answer 18

Virtue

Question 19

Excellence in performing one’s function, acquired by learning, and requiring experience and time.
excellence of thinking and use of reason.
• more on natural

Answer 19

Intellectual Virtue

Question 20

Can be acquired by instruction and training but only be resulted of a good habit or practice.
ex: courage, self-control

Answer 20

Moral Virtue

Question 21

TAKE NOTE

Answer 21

Moral virtues are not natural.

• If virtues are acquired by the tconstant practice of good habits, it can also be destroyed by the practice of bad habits.

• We need to deliberately practice virtuous acts

Question 22

•Virtue is found as the mean (middle) between two extremes, the balance between excess (too much) and deficiency (too little).

•Both extremes are considered as vices. Virtue is a sort of equilibrium that the good person is in.

Answer 22

Theory of the Golden Mean

Question 23

SUMMARY OF THIS FREAKING PPT

Answer 23

•Virtue ethics are normative ethical theories that emphasize the individual’s virtues or moral character rather than duties or rules about the acts, and those that emphasize the consequences of actions.

•The best way to be happy is to develop a virtue. Aristotle’s concept of “virtue” is closely related to the concept of “excellence of any kind:”

•Humans have the capacity to develop moral virtues that can be developed through good habits by constant practice.

•People can develop virtues through the conscious and deliberate process of practicing virtuous acts