PHIL 214 Test 2
Based ultimately on the way human nature is built, money CAN help us to live more excellently by fulfilling three functions that are not as easily fulfilled in a barter economy. What THREE functions does money naturally and legitimately serve, according to Aristotle?
(1) Money can make it easier to ensure that particular justice is fulfilled in exchanges and distributions.(2) Money can encourage distributions and exchanges which are beneficial to everyone (and to society at large), but which otherwise might not happen, by ensuring that all parties in the exchange or distribution really end up with something which is valuable to THEM.(3) Money can store value in a more permanent way than other items that might be traded or distributed, ensuring that an exchange or distribution "remains fair" over time.
(a) What are "external goods" "external" to? (b) Give any three examples of external goods. (c) TRUE or FALSE: Your bicycle is an external good, because it is a good that is not in your soul (d)TRUE or FALSE: Your physical health is an "external good."
(a) your soul (c)True (d)True
Explain the difference between virtue and self-control.
(a)The person with a virtue still has tamed his/her desiring and spirited parts and thus does not have an internal struggle about doing what is right. The person with Self-Control still has not tamed his/her desiring and spirited parts and thus has an internal struggle about doing what is right.
What are the three basic kinds of friendship, as delineated by Aristotle according to the three possible motives for friendship?
1. Utility - the other person is useful to me 2. Pleasure - the other person makes me feel good 3. Virtue/Excellence - I love the other person for his/her own sake, not merely based on being useful or pleasant to me
According to Aristotle, for every virtue there are ____ vices. AND WHY
2, Because there is a vice of aiming at not enough of something and there is a vice of aiming at too much of that same thing. The virtue is between these two extremes.
Why might someone disagree with Aristotle's position (about non-virtuous people not having friendships of virtue) on PHILOSOPHICAL grounds, according to what we covered in class?
: Because (according to this anti-Aristotle argument) natural human experience shows that sometimes people in fact DO care about each other for the other person's own sake even when the other person is not already excellent.
Has anyone ever defended the claim that Aristotle's account of Great-Mindedness can be interpreted so as to NOT sound like a "treatise in defense of arrogance"? If so, how, in general?
: Yes, "Arrogance is just fine for someone who has all the virtues, and when properly interpreted, Aristotle's account of Great-Mindedness promotes arrogance." - said by those who deny the value of humility and who think that Aristotle was right to omit it from his list of virtues.
What's unique about the relationship of the vice of being "Over-Reserved" with the opposite vice of being an Exaggerator when it comes to communicating thoughts about yourself?
A person who is EXTREMELY Over-Reserved (too little talking about oneself) actually ends up drawing attention to himself and thus ends up becoming an Exaggerator in that way. (For instance, extreme Over-reservedness can be like saying, "Hey, everyone, look at how humble I am)
Which is easier to reform - a person with a vice, or a person with Imperfect Self-Control, according to Aristotle, and why?
A person with Imperfect Self-Control because at least that person still himself recognizes that he ought to change his behavior. The person with a vice refuses even to agree with the statement "I ought to change my behavior" because his enslaved reasoning part (enslaved to the lower parts of his soul) actually justifies his depraved conduct with rationalizations
Aristotle's definition of "moral virtue"
A state apt to exercise deliberate choice, being in the relative mean, determined by reason and as a person with practical wisdom would determine.
What is an example of an event or action where you might be called upon to exercise the virtue of Magnificence?
A wedding
What is brutishness?
An unnatural desire taking over the soul (not merely an ordinary, natural desire taking over the soul, which would be bad enough). Examples: Instead of merely wanting too much ordinary food in general like an ordinary glutton (as in the vice of gluttony), a brutish person might want to rip babies out of pregnant women's bodies and eat them
What is the difference between antecedent passion and consequent passion?
Antecedent Passion - are those that precede an act. Consequent Passion - are those that are intentionally aroused and kept.
"A friend is, as it were, a second self." "Friend is but a name for a second self." Who said this?
Aristotle
Truthfulness
Aristotle's name for the virtue of habitually doing the right amount (the relative mean) of talking about oneself.
: A person who DID TECHNICALLY have a way to know the truth of what he is in fact doing, but who couldn't REASONABLY be expected to have been able to have found out the truth, is in a condition of . . . a. vincible ignorance b. invincible ignorance
B invincible ignorance
Why might someone people disagree with Aristotle's apparent position (about non-virtuous people not having friendships of virtue) on CHRISTIAN THEOLOGICAL grounds, according to what we covered in class?
Because Christianity teaches that we must love our neighbor as we love ourselves, and we must treat EVERYONE (not only virtuous people) as our neighbor.]
What does it mean for one vice to be "worse relative to you personally" than the opposite vice in the same area of life?
Because it temps you more than the opposite vice (Anger is worse than angerlessness)
When compared with Angerlessness, is excessive anger worse in itself, or worse relative to most people (meaning it is more tempting to most people), or both, according to Aristotle?
Both
According to Aristotle, which is worse - sternness or buffoonery? WHy
Buffoonery is worse relative to most people
What are the two subdivisions of particular justice?
Commutative Justice and Distributive Justice
Which deals more with regulating our Spirited Part and its handling of pain - Courage or Perfected Self-Mastery?
Courage
According to Aristotle, which is worse, Cowardice or Rashness? and WHY
Cowardice "worse in itself" than rashness, because cowardice simply does not even resemble the virtue (unlike rashness, which does somewhat resemble bravery). This means that cowardice, by its very nature, is further from the relative mean
What is the difference between absolutely invincible ignorance and practically invincible ignorance?
Dr. Kent's true story about the doorstop at the Minneapolis campus. It was technically possible for me to find out that I was not allowed to use a doorstop - all I had to do was take the doorstop to the public safety officer and ask, "Am I allowed to use this doorstop that I found in my classroom?" But no reasonable person would be expected to think that you'd have to go to Public Safety and ask a question like that. ANYWAYS, in the first class period, a week before Public Safety told me otherwise, I was in a condition of practically invincible ignorance of the rule that I was not allowed to use a doorstop. I in fact broke a Minneapolis campus rule, but I did not VOLUNTARILY break that rule, and I cannot be fairly BLAMED for it.
What does it mean for one vice to be "worse in itself" than the opposite vice in the same area of life?
Exaggeration is worse than Over-reservedness (Because it does not even LOOK like Truthefulness)
According to Aristotle, which is worse - Over-reservedness or Exaggeration? WHY
Exaggeration, it is worse in itself
TRUE or FALSE: If someone does not have the intellectual virtues, does not have the moral virtues, and spends most of his/her time doing practical things like managing a business, that person is living "the Practical Life."
False
TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle claims that the Practical Life is a waste of time. Everyone should seek the Contemplative Life, since it is the ONLY way to "be truly happy"/ "have life go well"/ "have eudaimonia".
False. The Practical Life is also a fulfilled life - like getting an A for "fulfillment in life." The Contemplative Life is like getting an A+ in terms of fulfillment.
TRUE or FALSE: If you live by intellectual virtues but not moral virtues, then you are living the Contemplative Life.
False. You're living neither the Practical Life nor the Contemplative Life, in that case!
. Aristotle grounds the duty of patriotism (love of and duty toward one's country) in his account of friendship. Explain.
First, the bonds of fellow-citizens within a country constitute a type of friendship, according to Aristotle . People care about what happens in other parts of their country (whether because of utility (the rest of the country is useful to us economically), because of pleasure [good feelings about and pride in their country, for instance], or because they care about their fellow citizens for the fellow citizens' own sakes).
Who loves himself more - someone who has good self-love or someone who has bad self-love, according to Aristotle? Explain.
Good self-love is best, bad self love doesn't love all the parts of himself
Out of all Aristotle's detailed accounts of moral virtues and vices from the second half of Book III to the end of Book V, which virtue is described by Aristotle in the most controversial way, according to what we learned in class? Why is it controversial?
Great-Mindedness, because many people have thought that details that Aristotle gives about Great-Mindedness make it sound like a rather unpleasant form of arrogance.
According to Aristotle, is it easy or hard to be virtuous, and why?
Hard, because you can err by too much or too little, and it's not always easy to both FIND and DO the relative mean
What are the three components of friendship (in other words, what definition of friendship did we learn in class from Aristotle)?
Have 2 people, they have good will for each other, they both know each other feels
What SPECIFIC bad effect does Small-Mindedness have "in itself," according to Aristotle?
He claims it deteriorates one's character by tending to result in aiming at less excellent activities than one is really capable of. Thus (in Aristotle's view) the person ends up not practicing and further developing and maintaining the great virtues that he once actually had.
Suppose someone says that friendship should be defined simply as two people having goodwill toward each other, nothing more and nothing less. Why would Aristotle consider that definition to be technically INCOMPLETE?
He says if the 2 people don't know how the other person feels, they do not have a relationship yet
Which of the following is NOT the name that we learned for a factor that we studied that affects voluntariness? historical accident, passion, physical force, habit, ignorance
Historical accident
In the text at the very start of Book III, Aristotle explicitly names two sources that can reduce voluntariness in an action. What are they, in HIS terminology?
Ignorance and compulsion
What is Insensibility?
Insensibility is not enough pleasure seeking
What does Aristotle mean by calling a virtue a "state"?
It's a habit or condition, not an individual action or feeling.
What is Lack of Self-Control?
Lack of Self-Control is too much pleasure seeking.
According to Aristotle, which is worse, Lack of Self-Control or Insensibility? Why?
Lack of Self-Control, because it's more tempting for most people
According to class lecture based on the text, what is the difference between Liberality and Magnificence?
Liberality is the relative mean of spending on everyday, small-scale things and events (like shopping for groceries or new pajamas). But Magnificence is the relative mean of spending on large-scale things and events (like shopping for a car, planning a wedding, buying a house, etc.)
According to Aristotle, which is worse - "Lust" (a salient case where the Desiring part rules the soul) or "[Excessive] Anger" (a salient case where the Spirited part rules the soul)? Why?
Lust for two reasons: (1) The person whose spirited part is in charge of his life has ONE thing right - his spirited part is governing his desiring part. (2) the desiring part of us is the lowest part of us, so being enslaved by it is the most degrading type of self-enslavement, in Aristotle's view.
Does Aristotle think that "self-love" is a synonym for "selfishness"?
More like self-appreciation than selfishness
(a) Can a non-virtuous person have a friendship of virtue (excellence), according to ARISTOTLE? (b) What reason does Aristotle give for that?
NO•because someone who lacks virtue is not worthy of being loved for his/her own sake
Suppose someone does not have the moral virtues. Will that person be fulfilling the 7 characteristics of happiness sufficiently to be "living well," according to Aristotle?
No
(a) If someone is bold on behalf of an unreasonable goal, would Aristotle call that courage? WHY
No ,because a virtue aims at a relative mean which is DETERMINED BY REASON AND AS A PERSON WITH PRACTICAL WISDOM WOULD DETERMINE. So if the goal is unreasonable, then it is not reasonable to face danger to achieve it!
According to Aristotle, is shame a virtue?
No because shame only makes sense if you were not being excellent. So a totally excellent person would need zero shame
Is Imperfect Self-Control just a synonym for vice?
No it is not, because Self-Control implies that there was an internal struggle which a truly virtuous person would not have had.
(a) Can a non-virtuous person have a friendship of virtue (excellence), according to ARISTOTLE? (b)What reason does Aristotle give for that
No,
Some thinkers (such as pure Libertarians, Relativists, and some Materialists) have proposed that the SOLE role of the state is merely to officiate in disputes between people and to ensure that contracts are not broken, that nobody cheats anyone else, and that no one hurts anyone else. They do not think the state should care if huge numbers of citizens end up in poor conditions of character, as long as they are not directly hurting anyone else. Does Aristotle agree? Explain.
No, Aristotle does not agree. Aristotle thinks that the state arises from a need in human nature: we need help to attain happiness, BOTH materially (with respect to their external goods) AND with respect to character (which is what even more important to happiness).
Do you get moral credit for having involuntary particular justice applied to you?
No, because by definition it happens against your will.
Is there a relative mean of cowardice, rashness, stinginess, prodigality, murder, theft, and adultery, according to Aristotle? Why or why not?
No, by definition, these are a not enough or a too much of something
. Why did Aristotle add the final clause of his definition of moral virtue - "and as a man of practical wisdom would determine"? Isn't that just redundant with the previous part of the definition ("determined by reason")?
No, he is specifying whose Reasoning Part is best suited determine the relative mean
Does Aristotle think that all self-love is bad? Explain.
No, there is good self love and bad self love
What kinds of disputes can arise among people about justice, even when they agree that distributive justice is different from corrective justice?
People still argue over: (1) whether a given economic situation calls for the application of corrective justice or of distributive justice (or of a mix of the two in some proportion that has to be determined), (2) whether the items in a given exchange are in fact equal in value (when trying to APPLY corrective justice), and (3) what standard should be used to decide who gets how much honor, power, wealth, possessions, etc. in a distribution (when trying to APPLY distributive justice).
According to Aristotle, the better types of friendships include what the less deep types of friendship offer, and more. (b)Give examples of part(a)
People who enjoy each other's company are willing to help each other out around the house or to loan money to the person they spend free time with. SO a friendship of pleasure includes usefulness to each other - and more.
What is Perfected Self-Mastery?
Perfected Self-Mastery is the relative mean (right amount) of pleasure seeking.
According to Aristotle, which type of friendship do young people tend to have with each other?
Pleasure
What is intellectual fear?
Recognizing in your mind that if you DONT do action X, that some horrible result would occur. (One doesn't choose the horrible circumstances.) It is less than fully voluntary, and possibly even involuntary.
What aspect of life is Great-Mindedness the "right amount of"?
Seeking large scale honor (building a statue of you, calling you majesty)
(a) Is a strong friendship fundamentally based more on similarity or on difference, according to Aristotle? (b) Why?
Similarity, Because then they are both looking for the same results from the friendship, and thus they avoid the kinds of quarrels discussed in class and in the text
What is meant by "physical force" as a modifier of voluntariness?
Someone is something is physically moving your body. Someone is handcuffing you
What is the difference between good self-love and bad self-love, according to Aristotle?
Someone with good self love, loves all parts, Loves ideals most of all (reasoning part)(justice, truth, wisdom, generosity). Bad self love is when someone loves only the animal drives and tramples on ideals to get pleasure
Sometimes one vice can be worse for your character than the opposite vice in the same area of life. What two factors can produce this result?
Sometimes one vice is "worse in itself" than the opposite vice, and sometimes one vice is "worse for you personally" than the opposite vice.
According to Aristotle, which is worse - Stinginess or Prodigality? WHY?
Stinginess is both worse in itself (doesn't even resemble the virtue as much as Prodigality does) and worse relative to most people personally (more tempting to most people)
TRUE or FALSE: Courage involves being as bold as a situation reasonably requires, in Aristotle's view. A coward does not act as boldly as reason requires in some situation.
TRUE
TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle claims that friendship should go beyond justice. (b)Why?
TRUE, Because a friend cares about the other person (even if, in the weaker forms of friendship, the friend only cares about you to the extent that you are useful or pleasurable to him/her).
What book did Aristotle write immediately after the Nicomachean Ethics?
The Politics
Relative mean
The middle route, not either extreme but between the two (not 2 brownies, not 0 brownies, but 1)
Explain the difference between vice and imperfect self-control
The person with a vice does not realize deep down that he is doing something bad and does not have an internal struggle about doing what is wrong. The person with Imperfect Self-Control realizes deep down that he is doing something bad and has an internal struggle about doing what is wrong.
Which part of the soul should determine the relative mean, according to Aristotle's definition - the reasoning part, the spirited part, or the desiring part?
The reasoning part
what must be true of the "amount" of something that is being deliberately chosen, in order for the state of character that aims you at it to be a moral virtue?
The relative mean
We studied multiple ways in which the term "justice" is used. What is "universal justice" (also called "general justice," also called "legal justice," also called "social justice," also called "contributive justice")?
The sum total of all virtues in that they have an effect on others. If someone is courageous, it has an effect on other people
(a) What factors make each kind of friendship in the list less stable and less deep than the next type of friendship in the list? (b) What do the motives of the first two kinds of friendship have in common?
They are both based on loving someone else only for what that person provides for ME, and loving that other person only to that extent.
What does it mean to say that they are "natural institutions"?
They are rooted in the way human nature is structured, not merely in our arbitrary decisions.
To what extent is an action done under physical force voluntary, and why?
They are voluntary to the extent that you consent to (actor on stage being "arrested" on stage)
To what extent is an action done by habit voluntary, and why?
They are voluntary to the extent that you consent to (having a habit of smiling and saying "hi how are you" when greeting someone"
Give an example of the vice of Meanness.
Too little spending on important large-scale events. Paper plates at weddings.
Which sense is Perfected Self-Mastery trying to moderate most of all, according to Aristotle?
Touch
Aristotle considers the relationship of people within the same city or even within the same country to be a kind of "friendship."
True
Aristotle did not identify one vice as worse than the other in the area of life that deals with small-scale honors.
True
Over-reservedness and exaggeration concern such things as how much you talk about yourself (including how much attention your clothing draws to yourself, since clothing talks about yourself in a way).
True
TRUE or FALSE: According to Aristotle, a person with Self-Control is on the path to virtue. and WHY
True
TRUE or FALSE: According to Aristotle, human nature can get along better in an economy that uses money than in a barter economy. That is, human nature is built in such a way that we find the invention of money to be helpful toward making our lives excellent (both morally and otherwise) instead of just passably okay.
True
TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle claims that, on the basis of the ways in which the Contemplative Life fulfills the seven characteristics of happiness even better than the Practical Life does, the Contemplative Life is the most fulfilling lifestyle of all, but the Practical Life is ALSO fulfilling.
True
TRUE or FALSE: Aristotle does not say whether he thinks one vice is worse than the opposite extreme in the case of friendliness.
True
TRUE or FALSE: In friendships between people who are in some way unequal, Aristotle thinks that it is important that the inequality be somehow equalized, so that neither friend feels "cheated."
True
TRUE or FALSE: Particular justice can also be called "fairness" in modern English.
True
TRUE or FALSE: Particular justice includes all the virtues.
True
The extent to which an action is voluntary is connected with the extent to which a person deserves credit or blame for his actions.
True
The topic of "voluntariness" is the topic of "to what extent the will is engaged in an action."
True
TRUE or FALSE: If someone does not have ALL the other virtues, then Aristotle claims that person cannot have the virtue of Great-Mindedness. WHY?
True, Because it is not reasonable to have a high opinion of oneself if one is not virtuous! So "great honor" would be "too much honor," by definition, for a person who was not virtuous.
An action done because of affected vincible ignorance is less voluntary in one way but more voluntary on another. AND WHY
True, because the person didn't know FOR SURE what he was doing (which reduces voluntariness a little) but he DID put in effort to CREATE his own ignorance
TRUE or FALSE: Even in the case of an activity whose very definition does NOT necessarily imply "too much" or "too little" by its very definition, the right amount of that activity for you personally might still be ZERO for much or even all of your life, according to Aristotle's way of thinking. AND EXAMPLE
True. The right amount of murder for me is zero because I am not police or military where that is necessary
You DO need to know the names of the virtues and vices connected with how much you talk about yourself and things that reflect upon yourself:
Truthfulness, Over-reservedness, and Exaggeration
Tell a story in which Friend A is getting more out of the friendship than Friend B. Describe specifically how Aristotle would want Friend A to respond to this situation, based on the specific ideas that we studied.
Two people are study buddies, one person is a math whiz and the other is bad. It occurs to person A that he is getting more out of it than person B. You have to equalize the inequality somehow (appreciation, buying them lunch)
Aristotle's definition of friendship is:
Two people have good will toward each other and they both know how the other person feels
Intellectual Virtue
Using the reasoning part of the soul to contemplate abstract, academic topics
Moral Virtue
Using the reasoning part of the soul to tame the animal drives
According to Aristotle, which type of friendships do co-workers and others involved in a business operation or a business deal often tend to have with each other?
Utility
Rank the kinds of friendship in order from least stable to most stable, according to Aristotle's ranking learned in class.
Utility, pleasure, virtue
What is the difference between invincible ignorance and vincible ignorance?
Vincible: know it but choose to be ignorant. Invincible: do not know it yet
According to Aristotle, do people have to be virtuous in order to have a friendship of virtue? (b) Why? (c) Why is that claim controversial?
YES, only people who are virtuous deserved to be loved for their own sake. It is controversial because someone who is bad should still be loved (drunk uncle Wilbur is neither pleasant nor useful to you but he has the potential to be a better person for his own sake)
Does Aristotle view the family, the village, and the state as natural institutions?
Yes, Aristotle thinks that the whole reason why states should exist is that villages are not self-sufficient for everything that helps us to achieve happiness/goodness, and the reason why a village has a right to exist is that the family can't be as happy/good as possible without interacting with other families (which results in larger communities), and the reason for the family is that most people are better off when they live not alone but in a family.
Can non-virtuous people have friendships of pleasure, according to Aristotle? Explain with an example
Yes. For example, one crook might like to sit back and hear the other crook tell stories about his exploits.
Can non-virtuous people have friendships of utility, according to Aristotle? Explain with an example
Yes. For example, you rob the bank and I drive the getaway car, and we both want things to go well for each other to the extent that we are useful to each other in robbing the bank
What does Aristotle mean by the "contemplative life"? Describe it.
a lifestyle that aims at having and exercising the moral virtues as appropriate AND at spending as much time as possible developing and exercising intellectual virtues too. Think of a morally virtuous person who is also a scholar who spends large amounts of time each day thinking of deep topics (like a really morally good person who is also a contemplative monk or nun, for instance).
What does Aristotle mean by the lifestyle that has been labeled (for short) "the Practical Life"? Describe it.
a lifestyle that aims at maximizing time spent exercising the moral virtues, but which does not have much intellectual virtue. So we're thinking here of someone who DOES HAVE the moral virtues, but who is not really a scholar or contemplative. An example of this would be a morally virtuous businessperson who lacks all liberal arts education
Suppose I suspect that there is a law against the type of stock transaction that I am about to perform. A legal dictionary is next to me, and I open to the page marked "insider trading." As I start to read the relevant pages, I see the beginning of an argument that is probably (but not certainly) going to end by condemning the type of trade that I am about to perform. Therefore, I quickly close the book, so that if I am arrested, I can honestly say that I "didn't know for sure that what I did was wrong." What exactly is this type of ignorance called? a. affected vincible ignorance b. crass vincible ignorance c. practical vincible ignorance d. lazy vincible ignorance e. absolute vincible ignorance
a. affected vincible ignorance
Which of the following names the virtue of having the right amount of boldness? a. courage b. perfected self-mastery c. insensibility d. rashness e. none of the above
a. courage
An action done because of invincible ignorance is . . . a. involuntary b. less voluntary than one done with full knowledge, but still voluntary c. fully voluntary
a. involuntary
An action done because of antecedent passion is . . . a. less voluntary than one done without passion, and possibly even involuntary b. fully voluntary
a. less voluntary than one done without passion, and possibly even involuntary
An action done because of intellectual fear is . . . a. less voluntary, and possibly even involuntary b. fully voluntary
a. less voluntary, and possibly even involuntary. Because you did not choose the difficult circumstances (which reduces voluntariness), and you might or might not be blameworthy for how you responded to those circumstances (depending on whether you chose to respond to them reasonably)
A person who DID have a reasonable way to know the truth of what he is in fact doing, but who decided not to look as hard as a reasonable person would to ascertain the truth, is in a condition of . . . a. vincible ignorance b. invincible ignorance
a. vincible ignorance
Suppose I do not try to find out the truth at all about some aspect of what I am doing, even though a reasonable person in my situation would. I also do not put in any effort to avoid finding out the truth. In that case, I am in a condition of . . . a. affected vincible ignorance b. crass vincible ignorance c. practical vincible ignorance d. lazy vincible ignorance e. absolute vincible ignorance
b. crass vincible ignorance
): An action done because of consequent passion is . . . a. less voluntary than one done without passion, and possibly even involuntary b. fully voluntary
b. fully voluntary
An action done because of lazy or crass vincible ignorance is . . . a. involuntary b. less voluntary than one done with full knowledge, but still voluntary c. fully voluntary
b. less voluntary than one done with full knowledge, but still voluntary
Which of the following is the name of the vice of too much with respect to boldness? a. cowardice b. rashness c. courage d. vulgar profusion e. lack of self-control."
b. rashness
Why would a friendship of utility be less stable than a friendship of pleasure?
because it is based on usefulness, and someone can cease to be useful to you faster than (for example) their sense of humor ceases to amuse you.
Where does Aristotle think most people are on that graph? brutishness, vice, imperfect self-control, self-control, virtue, and superhuman virtue.
between self-control and imperfect self-control, but NEARER to imperfect self-control than to self-control
Give an example of a specific way in which an inequality between friends can be equalized
by giving more honor to the other friend (even tell others about him), by displaying gratitude, by showing extra respect, by offering payment if appropriate, etc.
Suppose I try to find out the truth, but do not try as hard as a reasonable person would. In that case, I am in a condition of . . . a. affected vincible ignorance b. crass vincible ignorance c. practical vincible ignorance d. lazy vincible ignorance e. absolute vincible ignorance
d. lazy vincible ignorance
MULTIPLE CHOICE: Aristotle tries to show that, whatever they think eudaimonia/ living well/ happiness is, all or almost all people agree that it must have seven characteristics. Which ONE item in the list below is NOT one of those seven characteristics pointed out by Aristotle? a. "Living well" is something that occurs over a significant span of time. b. "Living well" is something that involves excellence. c. "Living well" is something that includes pleasure. d. "Living well" is something that involves at least a sufficient amount of "external goods." e. "Living well" is something that only literate, well-educated people can do. f. "Living well" is the ultimate goal of life. g. "Living well" must not lack anything important. h."Living well" must be something that occurs in a stable way, not occurring only every other day (for instance).
e. "Living well" is something that only literate, well-educated people can do.
Which of the following names the vice of not having sufficient boldness in the face of danger? a. courage b. perfected self-mastery c. insensibility d. rashness e. none of the above
e. none of the above (that would be cowardice)
Commutative Justice and example
fairness in exchanges, You give a soccer store owner $29.95 for a pair of junior soccer cleats which are worth $29.95. Or another student needs an eraser, and you want a pencil, and you both agree that his pencil is worth as much as your eraser, so you trade your eraser for the pencil.
Distributive Justice and example
fairness in making a distribution from a common supply of wealth, property, power, honors, etc. You shoplift a pair of soccer shoes from a soccer store. Then the police catch you. Since the shoes were worth $29.95, the government fines you and repays the soccer store owner against your will.
What is "particular justice"?
fairness. And fairness is merely one virtue among others, not the sum total of all virtues.
(a) According to Aristotle, which is worse - the vice of Small-Mindedness, or the vice of Vanity? (b) What reason(s) does he briefly give for this - it's worse "in itself," it's worse "relative to most people" (i.e., more tempting to most people), or both?
for BOTH REASONS
What is superhuman virtue?
having tamed the lower parts of the soul so much that the person does incredibly excellent actions. For example, instead of merely exercising "ordinary" liberality with frequent donations to the poor, a few people like St. Francis of Assisi have renounced all their earthly possessions and spent the entire rest of their lives doing good deeds and taking care of the poor, the sick, etc.
Aristotle concludes the Nicomachean Ethics by transitioning from the topic of how individuals should live to the topic of how ___________________________________________________________.
how the state and society should assist individuals in acquiring virtues by promoting virtue and discouraging vice
The final sentence of the Nicomachean Ethics is "To this let us now turn." What subject was Aristotle preparing to turn to next?
how the state and society should operate, OR YOU COULD DESCRIBE IT AS how the state and society should assist individuals in acquiring virtues by promoting virtue and discouraging vice.
Why would a moral virtue be a "state" in Aristotle's view?
in everyday life we consider a person to be an excellent person overall when his character is a certain way, not merely because once one day he had a warm, fuzzy feeling or once one day he did a nice action
what exactly does a moral virtue make us apt to do, according to its definition?
it makes you apt to exercise deliberate choice
Good Self love
loving all parts of oneself in proper order (Reasoning first, Spirited second, Desiring third)
Vulgar Profusion
ostentatious: grad students having a party, all poor but one, who wanted to flaunt (he brought a champagne fountain) and it didn't fit the party, he just wanted to show off. (also buying a race car to show off to neighbors)
According to Aristotle, what should we do when (for whatever reason) one vice is worse than the opposite vice? and why
push ourselves in the general direction of the less bad vice, because the worse vice is more dangerous to your character so we should stay far away from it
What aspect of life is Vanity too much of, and Small-Mindedness not enough of?
seeking large scale honor (building a statue of you, calling you majesty)
According to Aristotle's analysis, two and only two lifestyles sufficiently fulfill the characteristics of happiness, so as to be considered "living well"/ true happiness / true eudaimonia. Which two lifestyles are those?
the Practical Life and the Contemplative Life [or some mixture thereof, of course]
NOTICE that Courage is sometimes called Bravery and sometimes called Fortitude. That is, there are three English words for the very same concept.
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We studied one reason for which quarrels might arise between friends, according to Aristotle. Indeed, he claims that it is the MAIN reason for disputes and misunderstandings among friends. What is that source of quarrels that we studied?
when each of the two friends has a different motive for the friendship
Do YOU think that a person who is not morally virtuous can love another person for the other person's own sake, and be loved by that other person for their own sake, and have a situation where both of them know it?
you can still love the person for his/her POTENTIAL to BECOME excellent.