Professional Documents
Culture Documents
• Happiness = eudaimonia
• Happiness is not a result or end
• Happiness is not something we look forward
to after toil and suffering
• Happiness is a way of life, made possible by
virtuous living
• Happiness is an activity of the soul in accord
with perfect virtue.
Virtue &Habit
• For Aristotle, virtue is something
that is practiced and thereby
learned—it is habit (hexis).
• This has clear implications for
moral education, for Aristotle
obviously thinks that you can
teach people to be virtuous.
• Role models become very
important
Virtue As the Golden Mean
• Aristotle says virtue involves finding the proper
balance between two extremes.
– Excess: having too much of something.
– Deficiency: having too little of something.
• Not mediocrity, but harmony and balance.
• The Mean varies from person to person
• There are many ways of behaving & thus many ways
to be happy
A Virtuous Life Means Balance
Take one of the cardinal virtues away, then one
happens?
At school?
• Competence
• Teamwork
• Social justice
• Mellowness of heart
Examples
Emotion: fear
• Vice-deficiency = rashness
• Vice-excess=cowardice
• Virtue-mean=courage