Moral Virtue

There are two kinds of virtues discussed in book 2 of Nicomachean Ethics,

intellectual and moral. Intellectual virtue is developed through teachings, while moral

virtues are developed through habit, and everyone is capable of being morally virtuous.

Aristotle states that “none of the moral virtues arises in us by nature; for nothing that

exists by nature can form a habit contrary to its nature.” He then gives an example of a

stone’s nature to move downwards, and no matter how many times you throw it up and

try to train it to move upwards, it will always move downwards. 

Aristotle defines moral virtue as behaving towards the mean of two extremes.

One of the most important groups of extremes mentioned in the reading is the

relationship between pleasure and pain. Aristotle says to be morally virtuous; we must

be temperate. Aristotle explains this by saying “by abstaining from pleasures we

become temperate, and it is when we have become so that we are most able to abstain

from them; and similarly too in the case of courage; for by being habituated to despise

things that are terrible and to stand our ground against them we become brave, and it is

when we have become so that we shall be most able to stand our ground against them.”

Aristotle claims that virtue is a disposition, and people who are virtuous choose to

behave with the intent to be virtuous. Virtuous people must sometimes stray from the

mean between excess and deficiency, but it is important to know just how far to go so

we most easily hit the mean and what is morally right.