Theology 3: Aristotle, Parts Two and Three (Reading) pg. 28-42
True or False: Virtuous people know with their reason that only so much food is necessary for a healthy body, and because they are virtuous, they only desire that amount of food.
True
List several of the virtues and vices that Aristotle mentions in his Ethics.
Activity: Interacting Socially Vice: Obsequiousness virtue ( mean): Proper friendliness Vice (deficit): Sulkiness
List several of the virtues and vices that Aristotle mentions in his Ethics.
Activity: reaction to injustice Vice: irascibility virtue ( mean): Anger Vice (deficit): Inirascibility
Section Highlights: True or False: Aristotle maintained that all things in nature have a goal or purpose for which they strive; he called such a goal or purpose a "final cause" or "telos".
True
Section Highlights: True or False: The goal of human beings, according to Aristotle, is "happiness or eudaimonia" . It must be the goal of human life, for it is always the ultimate reason why any person does what he does.
True
True or False: Aristotle believed that every natural thing has a telos or goal toward which it strives, and that the telos or goal of human beings is happiness.
True
True or False: Aristotle did not believe in a personal Creator, he saw no need for the Christian virtue of humility in his conception of the good life. For Aristotle, human beings might recognize the greatness of god, but they had no reason to be great full to him or to expect good things from him. In contrast, the Judeo-Christian tradition has always emphasized that "fear of the Lord" is the beginning of holiness and an integral part of virtuous living.
True
True or False: Aristotle's reflections on the role of reason in the life of the virtuous person has had a tremendous impact on the formation of what the Catholic Church calls "natural law".
True
True or False: Each virtue is usually flanked by two vices, one deficiency and one excess, but usually one of these vices is much more likely to ensnare a moral agent.
True
True or False: In order to achieve this goal, a human being must be virtuous; virtue is a necessary condition for true happiness.
True
True or False: Proverbs 11:18-19 proclaims, "The wicked man makes empty profits, but he who sows virtue has a sure reward. Virtue directs toward life, but he who pursues evil does so to his death."
True
True or False: Aristotle's influence upon Christianity has been both profound and positive. For Catholics, in particular, Aristotle's conceptual framework has helped to illuminate many truths of the moral life.
True
Broad generalizations about character types given in order to help us understand why having a virtuous character is necessary for human happiness.
-Aristotle observations of human beings led him to conclude that each person has two basic parts, a rational and a non-rational, and that the non-rational part has two parts: a "vegetative" and an "appetitive". - The rational part or "reason" thinks, deliberates and, most importantly for our purposes, judges what is right and wrong; it is the part that distinguishes human beings from the rest of the animal kingdom. -The appetitive part is the various appetites, desires, and emotions that a human feels, such as sexual desire, anger, fear, pity. Humans share this part with higher animals such as dogs, cats, and monkeys. -The vegetative part (the most plant-like of all human capacities) controls all of a person's involuntary functions, such as growth, breathing, heartbeat, digestion, and the fighting of diseases or infections.
Define ethos.
A Greek word for character and Aristotle's famous manuscript, The Nicomachean Ethics, is primarily a study of human character.
What are objective matters?
1. All people have a range of eating, spending, desiring that is objectively right for them, even though that objective range is relative for each person. 2. To say that the middle is relative to each person is NOT to say that there is no objective right or wrong for each person.
Name the two extremes that flank the golden mean.
1. An excess or a "too much" 2. A deficiency or a "too little" For example: in regard to eating, it is possible for people to eat more than is necessary for their health; these people eat excessively, and this vice is called gluttony. On the other hand, it is also possible for people to eat much less than is necessary for their health, as is the case with someone suffering from anorexia nervosa; these people eat deficiently, and this vice is called "insensitivity".
Name similarities between Aristotle's ethics and Christian morality.
1. Aristotle's virtue ethics appeared before the birth of Christ, and some of his teachings were incorporated into the thought of some Christian theologians. 2. Aristotle is mentioned by name in the treatment of the human virtues in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. 3. The most striking similarity between Aristotle's thought and Christianity is the emphasis that both of them place on human happiness or flourishing. 4. Whether or not they were acquainted with Aristotle's notion of "teleology", Christian theologians throughout the centuries have stressed the notion that God has implanted in every human being a desire for happiness, a desire that can only be fulfilled by eternal union with God in heaven.
Other rules that Aristotle suggests that may help us become virtuous and find the "golden mean" are?
1. Avoid the extreme that is more opposed to the mean. 2. Know yourself. 3. Always be weary of pleasure, for all things, it is most likely to lead you astray. 4. The bent stick remedy
What are the four major character types?
1. Virtuous 2. Continent & enduring (they ward of desire and can withstand fear and painful emotions) 3. Incontinent and soft 4. Self-indulgent (vicious)
List several of the virtues and vices that Aristotle mentions in his Ethics.
Activity: Being pleasant/ Amusing Vice: Bufoonery virtue ( mean): Ready-wittedness Vice (deficit): Boorishness
List several of the virtues and vices that Aristotle mentions in his Ethics.
Activity: Claiming Honors Vice: Vanity virtue ( mean): Proper Pride Vice (deficit): Humility
List several of the virtues and vices that Aristotle mentions in his Ethics.
Activity: Eating, drinking, and desiring sex Vice: Gluttony and Self-indulgence virtue ( mean): Temperance Vice (deficit): Insensitivity
List several of the virtues and vices that Aristotle mentions in his Ethics.
Activity: Fearing Danger Vice: Cowardice virtue ( mean): Courage Vice (deficit): Foolhardiness
List several of the virtues and vices that Aristotle mentions in his Ethics.
Activity: Giving Money Vice: Prodigality virtue ( mean): Liberality Vice (deficit): Illiberality
Differences between Aristotle's ethics and Christian morality.
Aristotle was NOT a Christian, and as such, his conception of the moral life is often incomplete and sometimes simply incompatible with the Christian message. Aristotle's god was the highest of all beings and certainly worthy of contemplation, but his god did not create human beings out of nothing, did not have any concern for human beings, and did not offer hope for eternal salvation. Think: varying gods.
Define catechism virtues.
Catechism virtues would be perfectly at home In Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics: "Human virtues are firm attitudes, stable dispositions, habitual perfections of intellect and will that govern our actions, order our passions, and guide our conduct according to reason and faith."
The act of creating good habits example
For example, all of us have friends or al least know of people who are irascible or "hot under the collar," i.e., people who are constantly getting into fights and whose anger is aroused by the smallest things. But, if they are able to control themselves one time (perhaps, with the help of counselors or friends), they may find the next time they are in a tough spot, their anger may be just a little less overwhelming. If they continue to abstain from fighting and stay away from potentially dangerous situations, they will find over time that their anger is much less powerful and much more manageable. In this way, they have begun to form a new habit; they have brought their appetitive part under the control of their reason.
What is the overarching connection between Aristotle and Christianity?
God freely created us so that we might know, love, and serve Him in this life and be happy with God forever. God's purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may attain our goal of everlasting happiness with God in heaven."
Varying views of others
Jesus offers another rationale for loving your neighbor as yourself: "Whatever you do for your neighbor, you do for God." Christ not only identifies each one as God Himself; in some mystical way, our neighbor is God. Needless to say, these theological insights were not available to Aristotle, he did not see the need for caring for anyone outside the boundaries for his city-state.
What is character?
People have set characters, i.e., fairly stable sets of attitudes, opinions, and dispositions that result in fairly stable patterns or ways of acting and reacting. Whether or not we find a person's character or personality appealing determines whether or not we choose to become friends with him or her.
How do we become virtuous?
See Aristotle's Ethics.
Define virtue.
The ability to find the middle course of action, it will be flanked on either side by a vice, a deficient or excessive course of behavior.
It is important to note, that the difference between virtuous and continent, or enduring people is not that the virtuous do the right thing more often.
The difference is how they do the right thing.
What can only be obtained through living a happy life of virtue?
The experience of living a happy life of virtue that is Aristotle's ultimate "argument" against the other types of lives.
How exactly do virtuous people choose the right thing to do?
The virtuous person strives for the middle course or what today we speak of as "the golden mean". For nearly every passion and action, the virtuous person will try to steer an intermediate or mean course between two extremes.
"For men are good in but one way, but bad in many". What does this mean?
There are two directions in which a person may go astray, whereas the appropriate course of action is limited to the middle.
How do you acquire a virtue?
To judge with their rational part the appropriate way to behave or respond in a certain situation and to feel or desire in the appropriate way (I.e. in the manner prescribed by their judgment), then they have acquired a "virtue".
True or False: since Aristotle was unfamiliar with the Jewish faith, hope, and charity; he could not have realized that the true telos of a human being is to be eternally united with Christ. It was impossible to know Christ's identities.
True
True or False: the Bible itself, especially its wisdom literature, repeatedly emphasizes the Aristotelian notion that the good life is the happy life i.e. that moral virtue is a necessary condition and essential component of human happiness. For example, Psalm 1:1:2 states that true happiness can only be found in obedience to God's law: Happy those who do not follow the counsel of the wicked, Nor go the way of the sinners, nor sit in company with scoffers. Rather, the law of the Lord is their joy; God's law they study day and night.
True
True or False: The two vices surrounding temperance, gluttony is the "more opposed" to the mean; it is further from the middle and has less in common with temperance than insensitivity does. Likewise, cowardice seems to have less in common with courage than foolhardiness does.
True cowardice is more opposed to courage and is to especially avoided. if one must fall into vice, he or she should at least choose the better of the two.
True or False: A virtuous person, who possesses the virtue of prudence, can often help people such as these to see things in their proper prospective. Think perspective from someone else such as your mother or a professor you trust.
True very often non-virtuous people perceive their own situation in a distorted fashion, and so it is helpful to get the opinion of someone whose everyone regards as wise and good.
True or False: every human being has a rational and an appetitive part and every person falls into four general categories of moral agency. What are they?
True 1. the virtuous 2. continent (or enduring) 3. Incontinent (or soft) 4. Vicious ( or self-indulgent)
True or False: The golden mean ( intermediate way of feeling and acting) Aristotle calls a "virtue", and the two extremes that flank this intermediate way he calls "vices".
True Aristotles virtue: intermediate way of feeling and acting Aristotle's vices: the two extremes that flank this intermediate way
True or False: Though there is nothing wrong with pleasure and the happy and moral will certainly be, in large part, a pleasant one, the pursuit of of pleasure in itself is usually the cause of most of our problems.
True If we think about why we did not study for the mid-term examination or why we spent more money than our budgets allow, we usually find that the pursuit of pleasure is at the bottom of our failings. Think: pursuit of pleasure vs. happiness. These pleasures are pleasant for the moment, but in the long run, according to Aristotle, we pay the price. The pursuit of long-term happiness and ultimately long-term pleasure is somewhat like the pursuit of a cat. As anyone who owns a feline knows, most cats do not like to be handled very often, and if someone spends too much time trying to be affectionate with a cat, that cat will avoid that person like the plague. But if that cat is left alone, a great many times she will seek out a person with whom she does want to spend more time. similarly, if people seek pleasure around every corner, they become self-indulgent and a slave to their passions. No longer are they in control.
True or False: in much of the same way that a budding quarterback or an aspiring golfer should watch and imitate an expert golfer, continent and incontinent people who wish to be virtuous should model their behavior on that of virtuous people.
True In a way parallel to that of the quarterback or golfer, virtuous people are experts in their field; they have, to a certain extent, mastered the game of life.
True or False. St. Thomas Aquinas argued that the goal toward which all human beings strive is happiness and that, "final and perfect happiness can consist in nothing else than the vision of the Divine Essence.".
True Indeed the message of Christianity itself could be summarized in the passage from St. Ignatius Loyola, which uses the Aristotelian language of "goals and purposes". "God freely created us so that we might know, love, and serve Him in this life and be happy with God forever. God's purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may attain our goal of everlasting happiness with God in heaven."
True or False: As Aristotle observed, there are actions that are essentially evil and do not have excess or deficiencies associated with them.
True Murder and adultery are, by nature, disordered; they Do not admit of corresponding deficiencies and excesses.
True or False: Aristotle states that a virtue is a mean or middle that is determined by reference to what the virtuous man would do.
True Think experiencing and witnessing virtues. Aristotle's knowledge of virtue was acquired in the same manner everyone's knowledge of virtue is acquired; by observing virtuous people. Aristotle accomplished this by locking himself in an ivory tower and cleverly devised a number of rules for becoming virtuous.
True or False: Ironically, if people pursue the middle course " the golden means", eating food and spending money moderately, they will find themselves enjoying life, even though they do not pursue pleasure directly. Pleasurable lives are lives only by those who do not directly pursue the life of pleasure.
True Think: It will come so don't force it.
True or False: Aristotle maintains that people whose emotions or desires are out of harmony with their reason are like bent sticks.
True Think: try the opposite to get to the middle.
True or False: To say that the middle is relative to each person is NOT to say that there is no objective right or wrong for each person.
True All people have a range of eating, spending, desiring that is objectively right for them, even though that objective range is relative for each person.
True or false: Virtuous people live a life of harmony; their reason and passions act in unison and they have their mind set on what is truly good.
True think "men for others"
True or False: Habits turn to virtue
True. By repeatedly doing a certain action, we become habituated to that type of activity. Through repetition we train our bodies to behave in a certain way, and the way we train our bodies will determine our behavior in the future. -Practice does not make perfect, as the popular slogan wrongly declares, practice makes permanent. -if we train ourselves in a bad fashion, we will create bad states of character, likewise training ourselves in a good fashion, we will create good states of character.
True or False: Attitude can change?
True. When we are having our desires and emotions, they do seem to be beyond our control, but as Aristotle observes, it is possible to form new habits, Control our emotions through better habits. - Some things we learn by doing: exercise and try new virtues, action in order to learn and grow virtues. (i.e. men become builders by building, and lyre- players by playing the lyre; so too we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
What moral character do I have?
When we look around us or back into history we see that there are and have been people of differing moral character. We know that people like Mother Teresa have the finest of characters and that they will nearly always do the right thing no matter what the situation. Other people, like John Dillinger, are almost always inclined to do the wrong thing. The rest of us, neither saints nor mobsters, find ourselves somewhere in between these extremes.
Was Aristotle the first to reject the philosophy of relativism?
Yes, Aristotle was the first to admit that the middle or mean has to be relative to each person. This fact is evident in regard to areas such as eating and exercise.