Virtue Ethics: Aristotle

Ethics as the Art of Living Well

Aristotle was a “teleologist”, one who believes that every object has a final cause or “telos” (pl: teloi).
“For all things that have a function or activity, “the good and the well” is thought to reside in the
function.”

Function Agument
1. All objects have a telos;
2. An object is good when it properly secures its telos.
3. The telos of a human being is to reason;
4. The good for human being is, therefore, acting in accordance with reason.
***What separates humankind from the rest of the world is his ability to reason and to act on
reason!!!
***If parts have their functions, then it is logical to assume that the whole has its function.

Eudaimonia: “Happiness, above all, seems to be of this character, for we always choose it on account of
itself and never on account of something else. Yet honor, pleasure, intellect, and every virtue we choose
on their own account –for even if nothing resulted from them, we would choose each of them- but we
choose them also for the sake of happiness because we suppose that, through them, we will be happy.
But nobody chooses happiness for the sake of these things, or, more generally, on account of anything
else”.

Be it noted, though, that “happiness” is only one of the many translations for eudaimonia. Some schools
of thought would rather think of eudaimonia as a FLOURISHING, the state achieved in the active exercise
of the mind in conformity with perfect goodness or virtue. It is achieved or secured not as the result of
exercising our physical or animalistic qualities, but as a result of the exercise of our distinctly human
rational and cognitive aspects.

“Eudaimonia is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.”

***Happiness is the self-sufficient, final, and attainable goal of man.

**********Self-sufficient because it makes human life complete;
**********Final because it is desired for itself and not as a tool for something else; and
**********Attainable, not as a theoretical concept but something that we decide to do and achieve for
ourselves.

The Soul is the part of the human being that animates the body.

Elements of the Soul:

A. Rational
 1, Speculative is that part of the soul responsible for knowledge, concerned with pure thoughts and
is, essentially, the base of contemplation; and the
1. Practical part is responsible for choice and action, and the determination of the proper means to
attain a specific end.
B. Irrational
1. Vegetative part takes care of the involuntary functions of the body such as breathing, etc…
2. Appetitive, cannot by itself reason, it shares in, and exercises influence over, the rational
element.
Question: Is it wrong to desire for wealth and pleasure?

Virtue (Greek arête = excellence). For the Greeks, excellence refers to how a thing fulfills its function
(ergon) in accordance with its nature.

Kinds of (Human) Virtues

1. Moral virtue has to do with excellence in the performance of decisions relating to moral and
practical activities; it is the product of habitual practice (ethos).
2. Intellectual virtue has to do with one’s capacity to harness reason’s contemplative ability for
arriving at knowledge.

Phronesis or practical wisdom. What is its relevance to virtue ethics?

Book 2, Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle:

Virtue, then is twofold, intellectual, and moral. Both the coming-into-being and increase of intellectual
virtue result mostly from teaching – hence, it requires experience and time- whereas, moral virtue got its
name (ethike) by a slight alteration of the term habit (ethos). It is also clear, as a result, that none of the
moral virtues are present in us by nature, since nothing that exists by nature is habituated to be other
than it is……….Neither by nature, therefore, nor contrary to nature are the virtues present; they are
instead present in us who are of such nature to receive them and who are completed through habit.”
(Key words to remember here: practice, habit)

The Principal Virtues and Vices

Excess (Vice) Mean (Virtue) Deficiency (Vice)
Rashness Courage Cowardice
Self-indulgence Moderation Insensibility
Prodigality Liberality Meanness
Vulgarity Magnificence Paltriness
Vanity Proper pride Smallness of soul
Ambitiousness Proper ambition Lack of Ambition
Irascibility Good temper Lack of spirit
Boastfulness Truthfulness Self-depreciation
Buffoonery Wittiness Boorishness
Obsequiousness Friendliness Surliness
Bashfulness Modesty Shamelessness
Envy Proper indignation Malice

Virtue Ethics is an “agent-centered” moral philosophy

1. Virtues are character dispositions or personality traits; and
2. VE focuses on our dispositions and character, rather than our actions in isolation.
3.
Summary:
1. Ethics is living well through the habitual practice of virtue which translates into having a virtuous
or excellent character;
2. Happiness or eudaimonia is the chief good for the human person;
3. Happiness is attainable through the proper and habitual exercise of both intellectual and moral
reasons;
4. Eudaimonia is an activity of the soul that purposively attempts to choose the mean between two
extremes in the realm of morality;
5. Aristotle asserts that character is the most essential component of ethics; and
6. A virtuous character is the result of the proper combination of practical wisdom (phronesis) and
habituation (ethos) in the pursuit of the mean (mesotes).

According to Aristotle, the primary “functions of the intellectual virtues, namely phronesis and Sophia,
are to aid human persons in matters concerning moral choice and the attainment of knowledge of first
principle or eternal truth, respectively.” Kindly elaborate on the term SOPHIA…

WE ARE WHAT WE REPEATEDLY DO. EXCELLENCE, THEN, IS NOT AN ACT BUT A HABIT…….

Review questions:
1. Differentiate moral virtue from intellectual virtue.
2. How is a person’s character formed according to Aristotle?
3. What is the relevance of phronesis to virtue ethics?

The Natural Law: St. Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas: Tommaso d’Aquino; January 28, 1225 – Roccasecca, Sicily, March 7, 1274 – Fossanova;
Dominican; Doctor of the Catholic Church; Summa Theologiae. St. Thomas Aquinas’ assertions combined
reason and faith; maintaining the “fundamental Christian truth” that we are created by God in order to
ultimately return to Him.

Parts of summa Theologiae

1. The existence of God, His goodness, might and creative power;
2. The dynamic of human life characterized by our pursuit of happiness not through any God-
created good, but in the highest good which is God Himself; and
 3. Salvation (through Jesus).

The Context of Aquinas’s Ethics: An in-depth study of Aquinas’s ethics would require delving into other
(related) matters such as:
1. Our pursuit of happiness by directing our actions toward specific ends;
2. A look into the involvement of emotions –the “passions”- ;
3. Exploration of how our actions are related to certain dispositions or habits (in pursuit of God’s
good);
4. The conscience within us, the sense of right and wrong, - informed, guided and ultimately
grounded in an objective basis for morality;
5. The divine command theory – the unthinking obedience to religious precepts; and
6. The Greek influence and heritage.

The Greek Heritage

*Plato, a thousand years before Aquinas, in The Republic, presented the notion of a “supreme and
absolutely transcendent good”. “….the good may be said to be not only the author of knowledge to all
things known, but of their being and essence, and yet the good is not essence, but far exceeds essence in
dignity and power.” To the Neoplatonists, Plato’s idea og good becomes identified with “the One and the
Beautiful” – the ultimate reality which is the oneness that will give rise to the multiplicity of everything
else in the cosmos, beings whose single goal is to return to unity.

*Four Causes of Being according to Aristotle

1. material cause (materially individuated)
2. formal cause (shape)
3. efficient cause – something brings about the presence of another being
4. final cause – being has an apparent end or goal

SYNTHESIS
To Aquinas, the idea of a transcendent good prior to all being resurfaces in the form of the good and
loving God, who is Himself the fullness of being and of goodness; God is that which essentially is and is
essentially good. He is the efficient cause, the source of all creation; the final cause cause to which all
beings seek to return.

Creation is the activity of the outpouring or overflowing of God’s goodness. Since each being participates
in God’s goodness, each being is in some sense good, albeit imperfect. We are not left alone in a state of
imperfection, though, for God, in His infinite wisdom, through the divine providence, directs how we are
to arrive at our perfection. The capacity for reason is the very tool which God had placed in our human
nature as the way toward our perfection and return to Him.

ESSENCE OF LAW: common good

VARIETIES OF LAW
 1. Eternal law refers to god’s will for creation, the divine wisdom that directs each being toward its
proper end
2. Natural law are laws on morality ascertainable through human reason, antecedent and
independent of positive man-made law.
3. Human law refers to that which is crafted by man to be enforced in their communities
4. Divine law are precepts and instructions that come from divine revelation.

Natural Law
1. In common to all: the desire to preserve one’s own being
2. In common with other animals: sexual intercourse and care of one’s offspring
3. Uniquely human: the capacity for reason

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