ARISTOTLE’S VIRTUE ETHICS

CHAPTER 4 LESSON 2
 ARISTOTLE’S VIRTUES
At the age of seventeen, Aristotle (384-
322 BCE) traveled from northern Greece to
Athens where he hoped to study at Plato’s
famous Academy. He must have liked
what he found, since he stayed for
nineteen years, eventually becoming one
of the teachers. He left the Academy and
Athens when Plato died in 347, but
returned in 335 to open his own school at
the Lyceum (a gymnasium and garden
located near the temple of Apollo Lyceus).
Aristotle is reported to have written dialogues
after the manner of Plato, as well as the
extensive lecture notes that he used in the
classroom, and ancient readers of his dialogues
claim that he was an exceptionally gifted writer.
Unfortunately none of these dialogues survived
many centuries past his death, and all that we
have had available of Aristotle’s writings (at least
for the last two thousand years or so) are his
lecture notes. Some of these notes are highly
polished, while others are rough and rather
schematic, and much of their ordering was
introduced later by ancient editors.
But regardless of their literary
merit, their philosophical and
scientific importance is
unsurpassed, and has affected the
nature and growth of the western
intellectual world in untold ways.
Aristotle was a great scholar,
scientist, and teacher, a giant of the
past whose thoughts still move as a
living force among us.
 VIRTUE OR CHARACTER ETHICS
An ethical act is the action that a virtuous person
would do in the same circumstances. Virtue ethics is
person-based rather than action-based. 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.
 Virtue ethics does not only deal with the
rightness or wrongness of individual actions. It
provides guidance as to the sort of characteristics
and behaviours 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. A good person is someone who
lives virtuously-who possesses and lives the virtues.
 Virtue ethics uses the following as a framework for ethical
decision making.
This is how it is done:

In the virtue framework, we try to identify the character traits

(either positive or negative) that might motivate us in a given
situation. We are concerned with what kind of person we should be
and what our actions indicate about our character. We define
ethical behaviour as whatever a virtuous person would do in the
situation, and we seek to develop similar virtues.
 Obviously, this framework is useful in situations that
ask what sort of person one should be. As a way of making
sense of the world, it allows for a wide range of behaviors
to be called ethical, as there might be many different types
of good character and many paths to developing it.
Consequently, it takes into account all parts of human
experience and their role in ethical deliberation, as it
believes that all of one's experiences, emotions, and
thoughts can influence the development of one's character.
Stated similarly, virtue ethics is "the ethics of
behavior" which "focuses on the character of the
persons involved in the decision or action. If the
person in question has good character, and
genuine motivation and intentions, he or she is
behaving ethically." The rightness or wrongness of
one's action, or the goodness or badness of one's
personality depends on his character, motivations
and intentions.
•Virtue ethics, is an ethics whose goal is to
determine what is essential to being a well-
functioning or flourishing human person.
Virtue ethics stresses an ideal for humans or
persons. As an ethics of ideals or excellences,
it is an optimistic and positive type of
ethics."
BASIC TYPES OF VIRTUE (EXCELLENCE)
Aristotle gave two types of Virtue
1)Intellectual virtues
2) Moral virtues
Intellectual virtues refer to excellence of the mind while
moral virtues refer to a person's dispositions to act well.
Intellectual virtues include ability to understand, reason and
judge well while moral virtues dispose a person to act well.
 In the context of Aristotle, virtue is an
attained, actualized or self- realized potential
or possibility. It can serve as a moral
framework. When one has the potential or
possibility of becoming a musician, he tries to
train and study to become a musician following
a musician's virtue as a framework.
Aristotle (384-323 BC) posited an ethical system that may be termed "self
realizationism." In aristotle's view, when a person acts in accordance with his nature
and realizes his full potential, he will do good and be content. At birth, a baby is not a
person, but a potential person. To become a "real" person, the child's inherent
potential must be realized. Unhappiness and frustration are caused by the unrealized
potential of a person, leading to failed goals and a poor life. Aristotle said, "nature
does nothing in vain." Therefore, it is imperative for people to act in accordance with
their nature and develop their latent talents in order to be content and complete.
Happiness was held to be the ultimate goal. All other things, such as civic life or
wealth, are merely means to the end. Self-realization, the awareness of one's nature
and the development of one's talents, is the surest path to happiness.
The material world is in state of actualizing, realizing what it is potential for.
Everything has its potency for something, its nature. Nature unfolds naturally, it has
no obligation to be so. It has no intellect and will. But a person has an obligation to be
what he/she is meant or in potency to be. It his/her obligation to develop his/her talent
and virtues. The highest good or end, telos, of a person is the fullness of his/her self-
development or actualization. The concomitant result of this development or
actualization of his/her potentials is what aristotle termed as happiness or the
experience of happiness.
Virtue is an attained, actualized or self-realized potential or possibility. In short,
virtue means excellence and virtue ethics is excellence ethics.
 VIRTUE AS A MEAN

•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 (mackinnon, et al 2015).
 ARISTOTLE’S VIRTUE ETHICS
The Golden Mean

Vice of Deficiency Virtue ( Moderation) Vice of Excess

Cowardice Courage Foolhardiness
Insensibilty Temperance Licentiousness
Stinginess Generosity Prodigality
Meanness Magnificence Vulgarity (ostentatious
display of wealth)
Humility High mindedness Vanity
Lack of ambition Wholesome ambition Over ambitiousness
 VIRTUE ETHICS IN OTHER TRADITIONS

Confucius emphasized two virtues jen (or ren)

and li. jen means humaneness, human-heartedness
and compassion. Li means propriety, manners or
culture.
•Hinduism emphasizes five basic moral virtues: non-
violence, truthfulness, honesty, chastity, freedom from
greed. It also emphasizes mental virtues: calmness, self-
control, self-settledness, forbearance, faith and complete
concentration, hunger for spiritual liberation. (George,
V. 2008)
• Buddhism also has its intellectual and
moral virtues. From the eight- fold path
are the intellectual virtues of right
understanding and right mindfulness and
the moral virtues of right speech, right
action and right livelihood.
•Jesus Christ preached the virtues of love, mercy and
compassion, hunger for justice, patience, kindness,
gentleness, self-control. St. Thomas aquinas taught the
theological virtues - faith, hope and love. Christian
tradition teaches four cardinal moral virtues, namely:
prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude.
St. Thomas being an eclectic philosopher, integrated into his
own philosophy anything that is good conceived by his
predecessors like Aristotle. But he enriched their thoughts
with his own insights or learning. The attainment of the
highest good, which is happiness, includes its diffusion.
"Bonum difusivum est." Goodness as goodness necessarily
diffuses itself. A person's virtue diffuses itself in a right
action. Goodness shares itself, like a light that shines before
all men.
 One more point regarding various potentials of man which
when actualized becomes virtues is Hans George Gadamer's re-
interpretation of Aristotle definition of man as a "homo logos," a
speaking animal. In other words, in the light Aristotle's wisdom,
the virtue of being man is being a speaking animal, meaning, his
attainment of a meaningful, refined, and civilized language.
Gutter language is vice; beautiful, meaningful and refined
language is virtue. One who has a virtue of a refined language
speaks rightfully.
 The virtuous person did not inherit
his/her virtues. Neither were these virtues
simply passed on to him automatically.
His being a person of virtue is a product of
deliberate, consistent, continuous choice
and practice of living the virtue or virtues.
Questions:
1. The virtuous person did not inherit his/her
virtues. Neither did the virtuous person just
pop up. Neither were these virtues simply
passed on to him automatically.
What message does this tell you?
2. Here is a quote attributed to Lao Tzu.
“Watch your thought; they become your words.
Watch your words; they become your actions.
Watch your actions; they become your habits.
Watch your habits; they become your character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

How does this apply to you in your desire to

become a virtuous, ethical person?
3. Why is it difficult to be a person of a
virtue?

4. Learned but not educated (In Ilocano -de

adal nem awan sursuro na;
in Filipino – maraming alam ngunit walang
pinag-aralan)
 ACTIVITY
Form a paragraph using the guide questions below
(minimum of 100 words)
 Give examples of virtuous person you admire
 Why do you consider them virtuous persons?
 What virtues do they possess ?