Virtue According to Aristotle
by I will describe to you Aristotles theories about virtues, how to achieve them, and also the ultimate end that they are said to bring; Eudaimonia.
A small little problem that can be argued here is that the extremes and virtues may vary based on situation. Such as charging into battle during a war may be couragous, charging into a fight on school grounds is rash and very reckless. This can be applied to several virtues which vary in many situations. (I will post a link to several of those extremes and virtues at the end of the article).
Lastly is the idea that virtues are a necessity to achieve what Aristotle dubs as “the ultimate end”. Eudaimonia is roughly translated to “flourishing” in our modern day language. Happiness and eudaimonia are two very different concepts please note eudaimonia is measure over the span of ones life, taking everything into account, and it is objective. Happiness is considered a feeling that varies day to day, and is subjective. Aristotle believed that in order to achieve eudaimonia, you must be virtuous. This is why practicing them is so important to him, also note that to become virtuous it isn’t a simple transition; it’s a process that can take decades more then likely. Eudaimonia is the state or quality of life you have lived, if your life was “flourishing” or not based on thew events that occured through your entire life. Depending on what has happened will determine if you led a life that was indeed worthy of being branded a eudaimonia life. He also believes certain events after death can effect eudaimonia, but they must be heavy events such as death of a loved one.
I personally believe Aristotle was onto something, and i try to follow his rules to a “T”. If you think about it, doesn’t he seem to be rather accurate? After all any habit you stop can break quickly, but takes a while to rebuild; so why can’t this be applied to virtues? Virtues are to be practiced, practice makes perfect (virtuous people). Virtue leads to eudaimonia, and eudaimonia is what every human wishes to reach.
[Some virtues and vices shown if you click the link below, most of my information comes from Exploring Ethics, Steven M. Cahn]
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