Aristotle: Moral and Intellectual Virtue

Aristotle describes the fundamental human activity as

"the activity of the soul in accordance with reason."

"Justice in this sense, then, is not part of virtue but virtue entire."

Aristotle

"Practical wisdom, then, must be a reasoned and true state of capacity to act with regard to human goods."

Aristotle

"The just, then, is the lawful and the fair, the unjust the unlawful and unfair."

Aristotle

"Therefore for this reason also the whole concern both of virtue and political science is with pleasures and pains, for the man who uses them well will be good, he who uses them badly bad."

Aristotle

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim

Aristotle

For the man who abstains from bodily pleasures and delights in this very fact is temperate, while the man who is annoyed at it is self-indulgent. ... For moral excellence is concerned with pleasures and pains.

Aristotle

Christian virtue

Chastity, Charity, Temperance, Diligence , Patience, Kindness, Humility

Classical Greek virtue

Courage, Boldness, Manliness, Strength of Arms

Machiavellian virtue

Moral ambivalence, the appearance of any virtue needed at the time. Boldness and flexibility in the face of luck.

Republican (Neo Classical) virtue

Participation, Engagement in public affairs, Ability to discern the general will.

He divides into two important and related categories. intellectual virtue

Prudence, Practical Wisdom

moral virtue

This consists of virtues such as temperance, courage, and most importantly justice.

Greeks view of virtue

Their goal was not to get into heaven but rather to have a good political life

Intellectual virtues are a reasoning capacity.

They are acquired by teaching and experiences

intellectual virtue

This sort of virtue is best understood as practical wisdom (Phroneisis) it is also translated as prudence. It represents the sorts of things one learns from other's or experience.

Intellectual Virtue:

Virtues that must be taught in order to be apprehended.

Moral Virtue:

Virtues that result from habituation, the process of doing them over and over.

Virtue (arete) is often translated as

excellence and it is contextual to object

True virtue

____ rests in virtuous action combined with virtuous will

Inheritors of the Western Christian tradition often consider virtue as

an apolitical concept concerned with getting into heaven

Aristotle considers it the task of political science to

arrange pleasures and pains to encourage people to be good

Prudence (phronesis) is simply put wisdom about virtue

as it pertains to yourself.

Virtue is, in terms of this class, about not just doing politics but

doing politics well

The process of habituation -

doing virtuous actions - will lead a person to come to enjoy doing them

The highest human good - because it is sought only for its own sake and is not ancillary to some other thing - is

eudemonia, happiness, and it is found through virtue

Aristotle asked:

how can we life a good life in this world now?

Still working in the system of the Greek Polis, Aristotle questions

how to live a good life

All different things have their virtue.

i.e. the virtue of the eye is to see well, the ear to hear well ect

Whereas Plato was concerned with ___, Aristotle is, for the most part, far more

ideal theory; practical

For Renaissance and Enlightenment republican thinkers, virtue was

in a set of attributes designed to allow for a successful political life.

The skill of ruling (political science) is an

intellectual virtue.

Virtue for the Greeks was about

living a good life

Virtue is defined as a ___ between two vices.

medium example: cowardice-------courage------recklessness

For Romans, virtue was in a mediated form of

political participation acceptable for your class and gender.

Plato is the first ____

political philosopher

Aristotle is the first ____

political scientist

For early Christians, virtue was found in

shunning the political life (an act that in itself is political) in favor of finding salvation.

Practical Wisdom (sozousa ten phronesin) is like prudence at a

societal level

Teleology is a

type of philosophizing concerned with ends, the final result