Module 9

VIRTUE ETHICS: ARISTOTLE’S THOUGHTS

Aristotle’s Short Biography

Aristotle was born in the Greek colony of Stagira in

Macedonia. Nicomachus, his father was a student of
natural history and an eminent physician , who served
under Amytas II, king of Macedonia, father to Philip
the Great.
 Aristotle studied in Plato’s Academy and is
unanimously considered to be Plato’s greatest
student. He provided philosophical basis of
science which proved dominant for 18
centuries.
 In 342 B.C., he returned to Macedon as tutor and
then adviser to King Philip II of Macedon's son
Alexander, who became Alexander the Great. Later he
became a public teacher in Athens, using a garden he
owned where he founded his own school called the
Lyceum.
 His collected lectures cover most of the knowledge
of the time in science, and some other fields such as
Logic and Ethics, and include much of Aristotle's own
work in Zoology and Anatomy.
 Aristotle considers that morality is not merely
a matter of knowing the good but actually doing
or practicing the good habitually.
 For Aristotle, we can only fully actualize our
potential as human beings once we understand what
being human essentially aims to and do the
necessary things to fulfill that in the most excellent
way possible.
 According to Aristotle, Ethics is grounded in the
formation of one’s character - a way of being and
living in harmony with the human person’s proper
end (telos).
The Concept of Ethics

Aristotle assumes that any activity, practical

or theoretical, aims towards some ends or good.
acquired.
 For Aristotle, Ethics is a matter of living well
through the habitual practice of virtue which
essentially translates into having a virtuous or
excellent character.
 Aristotle is not simply interested in finding out
the different ends or purposes for human life. He
wants to find out what our chief end is. He is
interested in finding out what all our lives
essentially and ultimately aim to.
 Aristotle names the chief good for the human
person as happiness or eudaimonia, which is an
activity of the soul that purposively attempts to
choose the mean between two extremes in the
realm of morality.
 For Aristotle, happiness is the self-sufficient,
final, and attainable goal of human life. It is self-
sufficient because to have it makes human life
complete.
 For Aristotle, our chief god is not something
we merely possess but something that we
continually actualize. According to him,
Eudaimonia is an activity of the soul in
accordance with virtue. He postulates that
happiness is an activity of the soul.
 Aristotle teaches us that character is the most
essential component of Ethics. A virtuous
character is the result of the proper combination
of practical wisdom and habituation in the the
pursuit of the mean.
The Concept of Soul

For him, the soul is the part of the human being

that emanates the body. It is the life ptrinciple in
man. It is composed of both rational and irrational
elements.
 The rational part of the soul is divided into two
parts - the speculative (responsible for
knowledge) , and the practical (responsible for
choice and action).
 The speculative part is concerned with pure
thought and is essentially the base of
contemplation, while the practical intellect is in
charge of action and the practical determination
of the proper means to attain a specific end.
The Concept of Virtue

The Greek word for virtue is arête which means

excellence. By excellence, the Greeks thought of
how a thing fulfills its functions in accordance with
its nature.
Virtue

It is a state or character which makes a person

good and capable of fulfilling his/her end (telos) as
a human person.
 For Aristotle, virtue is a state of one’s character
that is the result of choice. This choice is governed
by prudence or practical wisdom (phronesis).
 Phronesis is the human person’s instrument in
dealing with moral choices. It is a kind of
knowledge that deals with practical matters and
not just with ideas or concepts.
 Phronesis is the intellectual virtue responsible for
bringing the human person closer to his/her chief
good in the realm of morality.
 Aristotle believed that there are two kinds of
virtues – moral and intellectual. Moral virtues has
to do with excellence in the performance of
decisions relating to moral and practical activity.
 On the other hand, the intellectual virtues have
something to do with one’s capacity to harness
reason’s contemplative capacity for arriving at
knowledge.
 Aristotle emphasizes the role of practice and
habit in the formation of moral virtue. No person is
born morally virtuous . However, all persons have
the latent potentiality to be so, if only they
habitually do excellent deeds.
References

Corpus, R.M., de la Cruz, R.G., & Tabotabo, C.V.

(2011). Standards of Human Conduct: Ethics for
Filipinos. Quezon City: C & E Publishing Inc.
Corpus, R.M., de la Cruz, R.G., Estoque, R.S., &
Tabotabo, C.V. (2008). Introduction to Logic: A
Modular Approach. Intramuros, Manila:
Mindshapers Co., Inc.
Lombo, J.A., Russo, F. (2014). Philosophical
Anthropology: An Introduction. Illinos: Midwest
Theological Forum
Sheerean, Patrick J. (1983). Ethics in Public
Administration: A Philosophical Approach. Santa
Barbara, CA: Praeger