|
He first equates virtue with excellence in furthering man's purpose. The courageous, in contrast, act at the right time and to the right extent in undertaking the right degree of risk. In matters of wealth, the two extremes are prodigality, which leads to waste, and meanness or stinginess, which attaches too much importance on wealth. 4.Book VII. Although the end or purpose of virtue is not pleasure, the virtuous man, because he engages in virtue for its own sake, will experience pleasure as a natural consequence of his nature. An incontinent man is unable to abide by his resolutions to resist these desires.
Aristotle holds that man's purpose is to lead a life of reason and deliberation. Virtue furthers this purpose and leads to a more complete life. Moderation is the key to the virtues. 5.Book VIII. When one commits a vice, he acts immorally according to his choice. HappinessThe ultimate purpose behind each person's existence is the attainment of happiness, which Aristotle defines as the contemplation of universal truth. The more the individual acts out with knowledge and self-discipline in accordance with these virtues by making moral choices for the good, the more the individual will acquire virtue and true happiness. Whereas incontinence is weakness of will that impedes an individual from acting according to what he knows to be good, continence is the strength to do as he knows to be good and successfully resist the passions.
Virtue of Character and the Preconditions of Virtue What are the virtues that enabled man to fulfill his purpose. It is not an "average" between extremes, but rather, a central, balanced position. Aristotle defines moral virtue is a "mean" between the extremes of excess and deficiency. He focuses his discussion on continence and incontinence. 1.Overview In his Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle develops a framework from which to explore morality, human happiness, and man's purpose.
IncontinenceAristotle distinguishes between three bad moral states--vice, incontinence, and brutishness--and their contrary states--virtue, continence, and superhuman virtue. 6.Book X. He concludes that there are certain values, such as courage or generosity, that are absolutely good, though they may manifest themselves in each individual differently.2.Book I. 3.Books II, III, IV. Some have suggested that Aristotle's framework for ethics was less rigid than that of his predecessor Plato, who took a deductive approach that began with the forms.
The pleasures that may lead to incontinency revolve around three kinds of activities: (i) unnecessary pleasures, such as honor and wealth; (ii) things worthy of avoidance; and (iii) the necessary functions for life, such as food and sexual intercourse. In order to determine what this state of happiness looks like, Aristotle must define virtue. Just as sharpness is the quality that makes a knife excellent because it furthers the knife's purpose, so too must we look to man's purpose in order to determine the qualities that further it. Because man is a social creature, a necessary part of his life involves community and friendship, the relationship where a man acts out for the good of another and tastes his joys and shares his sorrows as though they were his own. Friendship and Community Although a life of intellectual virtue is man's highest state of happiness, it involves a level of isolation that is not completely possible for man.
Although Aristotle's form begins with the particulars in a more inductive fashion, his Ethics demonstrates that he is as much as a absolutist as Plato was. Yet while man engages in friendship and community, his decisions should be governed by the intellect in accordance with virtue. All of these virtues manifest themselves differently in each individual, but they always hold the characteristic of moderation between extremes. Rather, pleasure is for Aristotle the ultimate good that results from virtuous action. When he acts incontinently, however, he acts against what he knows to be the moral good, and thus acts against what his mind wills. Because virtue is inextricably tied up to happiness, the virtuous man leads the most pleasant life. Wealth is therefore best used by the generous man, who spends for the sake of the noble and right; he will give the right amount to the right people at the right time.Among the other virtues, Aristotle discusses magnanimity, temperance, truthfulness, justice, and wit.
PleasureAs for pleasure, Aristotle does not equate it with the hedonistic sense that it has come to acquire in our modern day. Similarly, pride is the mean between vanity and humility and gentleness is the mean between irascibility and spiritlessness. It is the purpose of politics and the city to enable the framework from which men can realize this vision and thus live the good life. Happiness is not for Aristotle a subjective feeling but rather an objective state that comes about when the soul engages in activity that accords with virtue. Incontinent action is therefore not vice in the strict sense, and one may be consciously aware that he is committing an incontinent act while he is in the act of committing it. Generosity or liberality, in contrast, is the mean in matters pertaining to wealth. Happiness is thus equated with the rational activity of the soul that seeks to contemplate and understand reality.
For example, courage is a virtue that is the mean between cowardice and rashness: whereas the cowardly will not act at all, the rash will rush into imprudent and risky action.
The philosopher should learn how to make the hard work of virtue pleaurable (1176 a 1);4. What is there more to life. And a teacher who uses Irwin's translation will be greatly appreciated by students. The happy and excellent person can usually figure out the genuine cause of pleasure (1174 a 15);2. Terence Irwin is to be thanked and congratulated for translating a difficult work by Aristotle and for providing over one hundred pages of notes that helps the student to understand and appreciate Aristotle's classic work on Ethics.
Pleasure is natural and necessary for life (1172 b 10);3. Why does Aristotle think that the life of pleasure is not the best life. But there's more to life than amusing oneself all day (1176 b 35). Making pleasure inferior to friendship, since friends will encourage us to do the hard work of virtue. Pleaure is a limited action of the body but happiness is the unlimited action of the mind (1177 b25);5. And happy people know that the best pleasure is found in friendship (1155 a 5).Next, whether the life of pleasure might be excellent.
Irwin's notes are thorough and allow a person to study the Ethics without a professor. Pleasure is not the highest good for Aristotle because:1. Yes, since1. Most of us, however, need a teacher when it is time to read Aristotle. Pleasure is a tool for happiness, just as money, power, fame, beauty and priviledge (1099 b 1);6. Pleasure is good and allows us to get back to the hard work of virtue (1175 a 20);3.
I become convinced of this each semester since my college Ethics class is centered on Aristotle's Ethics and Irwin makes my job much, much easier.Here's what I've learned. Happiness is continuous and pleasure is not (1177 a 20);2.
I personally like the idea that many of the cultures of the world were tutored by the thinking of the man who wrote: "We are not studying in order to know what virtue is, but to become good, for otherwise there would be no profit in it." (NE 2.2) I write this to convince anyone who, like me, lived a good chunk of their life without investigating this book, that it's time to get a copy and carve out a few hours. Civilizations have ordered themselves around concepts like the "Golden Mean," that every ethical virtue involves finding a balance between excess and deficiency, or that virtue is an end in itself--one that can only be lived and not merely talked about.
A "worth choosing" translation of an absolutly "worthy of choice" book. Although I don't think Irwin's translation of Nicomachean Ethics is the best one available, and although I am also disagree with maybe half of his interpretations in the second part of the book -which, I guess, is normal in every philosophical discussion-, I do think it's an useful tool and an obligatory reference in any Nicomachean ethics' study.
He goes on to look at several different types of virtues and he believes they can be perfected through practice. Therefore, he supports finding the mean in all human action and this is to lead to happiness.
Overall the whole book is worth ones time though. Books 8 and 9 give the best treatise on friendship that I have ever found so I recommend those two books above all of the rest.
Aristotle's ethics is a theory of excellence so it definitely spoke to me as a individual. To use an example from Aristotle to illustrate, one is to act courageously, but it is rash to act with too much courage and it is cowardice to not act with enough courage.
Aristotle's ethics is a simple and a commonsensical approach to ethics so nobody should be put off from reading this book due to its difficulty. He starts with the claim that the end of all human action is happiness and he claims that happiness requires virtue.
One is to practice at finding the golden mean between excess and deficiency.
|
