Aristotle's Virtue Ethics

Question 1

Virtue ethics asks, who is the ethical person?

Answer 1

For Aristotle, the ethical person is virtuous, one who has developed good character or has developed virtues. One attains virtues when he/she actualizes his/her potentials or possibilities, the highest of which is happiness. Happiness is the joy of self-realization, self-fulfillment, the experience of having actualized one’s potential.

Question 2

is the action that a virtuous person would do in the same circumstances

Answer 2

ethical act

Question 3

Virtue ethics is person-based rather than action-based.

Answer 3

It looks at the virtue or moral character of the person carrying out an action, rather than at ethical duties and rules or the consequences of particular actions.

Question 4

Virtue ethics does not only deal with the rightness or wrongness of individual actions.

Answer 4

It provides guidance as to the sort of characteristics and behaviors a good person will seek to achieve. In that way, virtue ethics is concerned with the whole of a person’s life, rather than particular episodes or actions.

Question 5

A good person is someone who lives _______ - who possesses and lives the virtues.

Answer 5

virtuously

Question 6

virtue or excellence

Answer 6

arete

Question 7

VIRTUE AS A HABIT

Answer 7

Virtues are special moral qualities, trained behavioral dispositions that results in habitual acts of moral.

This means that a person becomes good or moral not by doing a singular act of goodness but by acting, by doing the good repeatedly or regularly so it will become a habit.

Thus making it an integral and inseparable part of one’s daily life and conduct.

Question 8

Goodness is simply the consequence of one’s

Answer 8

character or identity

Question 9

VIRTUE IS ACQUIRED AND A PRODUCT OF EFFORT

Answer 9

Virtue is not something that a person is born with.

It is something that the individual has to earn through effort. dedication, and persistence.

It is something that is achieved through and with others. One cannot become virtuous apart from the community.

Question 10

The acquisition of a ___________ is also a process that requires time.

Answer 10

virtuous character

Question 11

is the joy of self-realization, self-fulfillment, and experience of having actualized one’s potential

Answer 11

Happiness

Question 12

VIRTUE, REASON AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS

Answer 12

Another important teaching of Aristotle on virtue is his philosophy regarding the pursuit of happiness or human flourishing, fulfillment.

Aristotle think we achieve this through the right habits, which he describes as virtues which are ingrained dispositions that are conducive to living well.

A happy life is a life of virtue.

Such a life involves reason (rational contemplation).

It is essentially the life of a philosopher, a life of a thinker. This kind of life gives man the deepest joy and happiness since this is the life that we can share with the gods. One that is dedicated to the contemplation of divine and eternal truths.

Question 13

A person can then be said to be good or moral if she is a person of

Answer 13

character

Question 14

He embodies the positive qualities such as

Answer 14

wisdom, courage, temperance, justice, magnanimity among others.

Question 15

In understanding man’s pursuit of happiness, Aristotle says, that every act that a person does is directed towards a particular purpose, aim, or what Greeks called ________.

Answer 15

TELOS

Question 16

For every pursuit of a person hopes to achieve a good - the good is considered to be the _________, the purpose for which all acts seek to achieve.

Answer 16

telos

Question 17

Now, what the good and how does this relate to the pursuit of happiness for man?

Answer 17

In his highly influential book Nichomachean Ethics (son Nichomachus), Aristotle discerned basically the nature of human happiness (EUDAIMONIA) as the ultimate and final goal of all human striving, by reference to our special and unique function as human beings. For him, something is good if it functions according to its nature. If it serves the very purpose of its being. A good human being is one who functions according to his essence.

Question 18

So what is the essence of a human being? What makes him truly as one? What is his truest nature?

Answer 18

The answer to all these, following Aristotle’s thinking, is that, we humans are unique in our capacity to exercise rationality in our conduct and decisions. The excellent use of reason is what Aristotle considers as a “virtuous activity.” Virtue is an activity of the soul or a course of action in accordance with reason” (Camp et al. 2015: 22). And philosophic contemplation, as previously mentioned, represents the very summit of all human pursuits and activities. And since reason is distinct and uniqge in man, it is only logical that it should be the one to direct and governed all his activities and pursuits, without of course neglecting other capacities in various spheres of his existence

Question 19

A good life by living the Golden Mean

Answer 19

For Aristotle, virtue is the Golden Mean between two extremes. The virtue of courage is a mean between two extremes of deficiency and extreme, namely, cowardice and foolhardiness, respectively. Too little courage is cowardice and too much courage is foolhardiness.de

Question 20

defined as a behavior showing high moral standards or the general quality of goodness in a person.

Answer 20

Virtue