2 aristotles essay ethics major series thinker

Aristotle regarded psychology as a part of natural philosophy , and he wrote much about the philosophy of mind. This material appears in his ethical writings, in a systematic treatise on the nature of the soul De anima , and in a number of minor monographs on topics such as sense-perception, memory , sleep, and dreams. Not only humans but beasts and plants too have souls, intrinsic principles of animal and vegetable life. If one regards a living substance as a composite of matter and form, then the soul is the form of a natural—or, as Aristotle sometimes says, organic—body. An organic body is a body that has organs—that is to say, parts that have specific functions, such as the mouths of mammals and the roots of trees.

Aristotle on Agency

Like many Greeks, Aristotle did not believe in the existence of inherently bad behaviors. A behavior cannot be either good or evil, but a person can have good or bad character traits. Aristotle said that all people are composed of a combination of vice bad character traits and virtue good character traits. He uses this concept to explain the thesis: Virtue is a disposition concerned with choice.

This is explained in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. However, the thesis cannot be understood without an understanding of what exactly a disposition is. Aristotle believed that dispositions are one of three groups of things that make up the soul. Feelings and capacities are the other two; they differ from dispositions in that they are not leaned responses.

A disposition has to be learned in response to a situation. For example we learn to wear certain styles of clothing. In America, it a norm for men to wear pants; skirts and dresses are typically considered women's clothing.

Men could wear dresses if they wanted to, and they are physically able to do so, but most men choose not to. Most American men have a disposition to wear pants. Because dispositions are variable, we must make certain decisions in given situations that we would not make in other situations. The other components of the soul are not variable in the same way.

This is important to Aristotle's thesis because these choices are applied to virtue. He arrives at the theory that virtue is a disposition through augment by elimination. Virtue is a character trait, and character traits are part of an individual. If virtue is part of the soul then it must be a disposition, a feeling, or a capacity. In class we used the example of a drunk driver causing a car accident and seriously injuring another person.

Most people would hold the drunk driver entirely responsible for the other driver's injuries and any suffering the other driver experiences in regards to the accident. It is not considered virtuous to drink and drive, meaning that a bad character trait is expressed by a drunk driver. The action of drunk driving is important, but not because it is inherently wrong. Even if someone has a thought or feelings about driving drunk, they cannot be held accountable for the thought and feelings if they do not act on them.

In the example, the drunken person acted on the desire to drive and created an unfavorable situation. The individual cannot be held accountable for the desire to drive, only for acting on the desire.

Since people can't be held accountable for their emotions, virtue is not an emotion. Using the same example, we can prove that virtue is not a capacity. Everyone is capable of getting drunk, driving a car, and causing an accident. Just because everyone is capable of these things does not mean that everyone will do them.

Since we are all capable of basically the same things, but we do not all fulfill these capacities we cannot be held accountable for them. The only thing that virtue could be is a disposition, because it is not a feeling or a capacity. Since virtue is a disposition we are responsible for the choices that we make based on personal vice and virtue.

How virtuous a person is determines how they will behave in a given situation. Aristotle argued that since different people may act differently in the same situation there are no inherently bad actions. The Virtue Theory claims that an action is good if performed by a person based on virtue and bad if performed based on vice.

This enforces the thesis that virtue is a disposition because a virtuous person will theoretically make the right choice in any situation. Arguments can be made both for and against this thesis. One example of where the thesis can be applied is in the situation of self-defense. If a woman is attacked by a man with a gun and is about to be violently raped, but somehow gets the gun away from the man and shoots him to save herself, it will not be said that she is a bad person or that what she did was wrong.

It will most likely be said that she is brave and that she did what was right given the situation. An argument against the thesis is that some actions are morally wrong on every level.

Christianity and Judaism both describe actions that are bad, independent of the person performing the action. For example, Christianity says that it is wrong for a person to kill another person. Therefore, someone who kills another person has done a bad thing whether they have good or bad character traits doesn't matter, because the action itself is not moral. I personally believe that there are actions that in most cases are wrong.

Murder, adultery, and stealing are all bad behaviors. Before reading Aristotle's thesis I would have said that these things are inherently bad.

After reading Nicomachean Ethics I thought more about the topic and considered many examples of when "bad" behaviors are the right thing to do or the only choice. The self-defense example is one of these; another classic example would be a mother stealing bread to feed her family.

From a Christian standpoint I would like to say that there are inherently bad behaviors, but after thinking of many examples of when a "bad" behavior would be acceptable, I agree with Aristotle's thesis. Note on the Text: This essay was written by a student in Theodore Gracyk's Philosophy course during fall semester , and it is posted here with her permission. Click here to read Aristotle's analysis of virtue. Although Aristotle was a friend and student of Plato, he did not agree with Plato's theories on morality.

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics deals with character and its proper development in the Essays on Aristotle's Ethics Ethics Issue 2 of Major thinkers series. Essays on Aristotle's Ethics. Series: Major Thinkers Series and Major Thinkers Series, 2. Edited by: Amélie Oksenberg Rorty. Publisher: University of California.

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In particular, his views on the connection between the well-being of the political community and that of the citizens who make it up, his belief that citizens must actively participate in politics if they are to be happy and virtuous, and his analysis of what causes and prevents revolution within political communities have been a source of inspiration for many contemporary theorists, especially those unhappy with the liberal political philosophy promoted by thinkers such as John Locke and John Stuart Mill. However, like the other ancient philosophers, it was not the stereotypical ivory tower existence.

Author selfstudyhistory Posted on Posted on September 17, September 17, The virtue ethics of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Epicureans, and the Stoics were very individualistic and primarily concerned with helping one person become a better person though self-improvement. Virtue ethics is one of the three major approaches to normative ethics, often contrasted to deontology mainly Kantianism , which emphasizes duty to rules, and consequentialism Mainly utilitarianism , which derives rightness or wrongness from the outcome of the act itself.

Aristotelian ethics

Like many Greeks, Aristotle did not believe in the existence of inherently bad behaviors. A behavior cannot be either good or evil, but a person can have good or bad character traits. Aristotle said that all people are composed of a combination of vice bad character traits and virtue good character traits. He uses this concept to explain the thesis: Virtue is a disposition concerned with choice. This is explained in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.

Aristotle’s Method of Inquiry in Eudemian Ethics 1 and 2

Login via Institution. Bridging the gap between ethics and science has emerged as an important concern in the most recent research on Aristotle. In this essay, I contribute to the ongoing discussion with a study of the method of inquiry adopted in Eudemian Ethics EE 1—2. In a nutshell, this method entails the progressive clarification of what is initially confounded rather than confused. The obvious question is whether, and eventually to what extent, the method employed in the Eudemian Ethics reflects the procedures of scientific inquiry mandated by the Posterior Analytics. My essay is divided into four main parts. I begin with an examination of the methodological remarks offered in EE 1. Then, I try to determine whether, and to what extent, the method that Aristotle outlines in this chapter controls the overall argument advanced in the first two books of the Eudemian Ethics.

For this reason, his theory is rightly called teleological.

Aristotle first used the term ethics to name a field of study developed by his predecessors Socrates and Plato. In philosophy, ethics is the attempt to offer a rational response to the question of how humans should best live.

The Greek philosopher Aristotle B. Aristotle was born in B. Both of his parents were members of traditional medical families, and his father, Nicomachus, served as court physician to King Amyntus III of Macedonia. At age 17 he was sent to Athens to enroll in Plato's Academy. When Plato died in , control of the Academy passed to his nephew Speusippus. He spent five years on the coast of Asia Minor as a guest of former students at Assos and Lesbos. It was here that he undertook his pioneering research into marine biology and married his wife Pythias, with whom he had his only daughter, also named Pythias. Aristotle returned to Athens in B. It was at the Lyceum that Aristotle probably composed most of his approximately works, of which only 31 survive. In style, his known works are dense and almost jumbled, suggesting that they were lecture notes for internal use at his school. The surviving works of Aristotle are grouped into four categories. For example, all men are mortal, all Greeks are men, therefore all Greeks are mortal.

Keywords: Aristotle , actions , processes , events , intentional action , voluntary action , agency. Let us begin with a specific example: Iannis throws some part of the cargo overboard in a storm to save himself and other members of his crew. Aristotle describes a case like this in the Nicomachean Ethics NE a9— He acts as he does for the sake of his goal: safety. To what ontological category does it belong? Much remains to be done on these issues. Ontological Issues: Processes and Events.