Module 8:

ARISTOTLE: VIRTUE ETHICS

 ARISTOTLE
• Greek Philosopher and Scientist 
• Student of Plato 
• Teacher of Alexander the Great 
• 384 BC, Stagira, Greece 
• Studied at Platonic Academy 
• He is the author of a philosophical and scientific
system like the Formal Logic and Ethics that
became the framework and vehicle for Medieval
Islamic Philosophy, Christian Scholasticism, and
Western arts and sciences including ethics, history,
botany, chemistry, physics, poetics, rhetoric,
metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of
nature, political theory, and zoology.
A. Telos
• Aristotle discussed how a person
should become just and true through
a good up-bringing or nurturing of
virtues in oneself and in others.
• This, for him, will bring one to his
or her purpose, goal or end.
• It is the essence or nature of beings
including human persons.
• Everything has an “entelechy” or
“having a telos inside.”
• However, the telos or end of a
person is his rationality.
• It is his rationality makes him
self-sufficient.
• A self- sufficient person means
that as he lacks nothing, he is
capable of providing for himself
what he needs and wants.
• In times of isolation and
suffering, he alone can freely
make his life desirable and
meaningful.
• Rationality or intelligence is what
distinguishes a person from plants and
animals.
• For Aristotle, the person has a tripartite
soul:
 Rational – is capable of thinking,
acting, socializing and choosing based
on principle and taking responsibility.
 Vegetative – Responsible for nutrition
and growth has no significant relation
with the rational.
 Appetitive (emotion) – Governs desire
is partly irrational but partly rational as
it could be trained to follow reason.
B. Eudaimonia
• It is the ultimate telos or highest good.
• Eudaimonia as the attainment of the
daimon or perfect self presupposes self-
sufficiency, self-acceptance and self-
mastery.
• Many agree that it may be called also as
happiness, well-being, good life, self-
realization and supreme good.
• But they may not really agree on what
makes or how to achieve a flourishing or
happy life.
• “Happiness is the meaning and the
purpose of life, the whole aim and end of
human existence.
• Happiness may consider as virtue or • Virtues such as courage, integrity
disposition that could be developed.
• Happiness refers to the life of the person as
and responsibility are acquired
a whole. good habits through habituation
• Happiness can be known, understood and or constant practice and self-
practiced. mastery.
Virtue as Habit • They are traits that contribute to
• “arête”- excellence
the functioning well of reason
• Virtue is a state of character which makes a
person good and capable of fulfilling
and regulate the desires of the
his/her (telos) as a human person. person’s appetitive nature.
• Virtues are not emotions but rationalities of
persons that can be fully developed if they
are done in the right way all the time at any
given situation.
• Intellectual virtue involves: • Practical wisdom
 Excellently applies the right conduct, right
1. Intelligence (nous), which person, right amount, right time, right
apprehends fundamental truths intention, right means, and right situation to
achieve self-mastery.
(such as definitions, self-evident  It is the capacity to do appropriately the goods
principles). of the intellect.
2. Science(episteme), which is skill  Aristotle identified four basic moral virtues:
prudence, temperance, courage and justice.
with inferential reasoning (such  Moral virtues are behaviors that obey reason.
as proofs, syllogisms,  They are moral principles or good actions
demonstrations). repeatedly done and practice as excellent good
habits that ultimately unite and evolve as a
3. Theoretical wisdom (sophia), character. They are considered as second
which combines well natures that follow from the first nature of the
human person, which is rationality
fundamental truths with valid
and necessary inferences to
reason about changing truths
• A truly virtuous action is performed by someone who is not simply
compelled to do so.
• A person does a virtuous act and chooses to act in such a way for the
sake of being virtuous.
• This choice comes from a certain firmness of character that is not easily
swayed by one’s passions or influenced by certain factors in a given
situation.
• A virtuous person is someone who has been so used to acting virtuously
that it becomes tremendously difficult for anything or anyone to
convince him/her to act otherwise.
• To a certain degree vices are no longer an option for a truly virtuous
person.
• Only a virtuous person can perform truly virtuous actions because he/she
is initially predisposed towards virtue.
• Aristotle's ethics, or study of character, is built around the
premise that people should achieve an excellent character (a
virtuous character, "ethikē aretē" in Greek) as a pre-condition
for attaining happiness or well-being (eudaimonia).
 Module 9:

St. Thomas Aquinas: Natural Law and Its Tenet

 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
• Greatly influenced by Aristotle
• “Universal Doctor of the Church”
• 1225, Roccasecca, Italy
• March 7, 1274, Fossanova Abbey, Italy
• Studied at Benedictine house in Naples
• He is an Italian Catholic priest, philosopher and the
“Angelic Doctor.”
• He was hailed as the father of the Thomistic school of
theology and defender of the Catholic faith because of
his two books.
• Summa Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles.
• He was the most influential Western medieval legal
scholar and theologian that developed several concepts
in modern philosophy.
 Natural Law and Its Tenets
• Natural law theory is the simplest
ethical framework that recognizes the
deep connection between nature and
morality.
• All things in nature or the world have
their own purposes which are part of an
all-encompassing law, the natural law.
• Natural law is morality built into the
nature of people which is rationality.
• Thus, anything that is natural-rational
is basically moral and vice versa.
• Thomas Aquinas is said to have Christianized
Aristotelian philosophy.
• Aquinas needed first to establish that humans were
created by God and are meant to achieve their ultimate
happiness in heaven or in God.
• He added that the natural law comes from and ends in
God.
• Anything that goes against it is considered unnatural
and thus immoral.
• Aquinas believes in a God (efficient cause) who created
the natural world in order and with purpose as a
reflection of his will.
• People’s human nature was a special reflection (final
cause) or growth in relationship with God, the supreme
good, in order to discover his plan and purpose or
nature.
 Natural Law and Its Tenets
Aquinas’ Natural Law Theory has the following
tenets:
1. Eternal law of God is revealed through the
Natural Law.
2. Natural Law is revealed to all people through
human reason.
3. Natural law has flexibility in its application.
4. The natural laws are universal and unchangeable
bases to judge individual cultures and societies.
5. Everything in the world has its own nature or
purpose (natural law) of being.
6. Humanity has an essential rational nature.
7. Human person can know, through reason, what is
in accord with his own nature, which is good.
• Aquinas defines law as a dictate of
reason. This dictate of reason is
primarily from the ruler to ensure the
order and proper functioning of
everything in a community. By the
same reason, he discovers different laws:
eternal, natural, human and divine.
• Eternal law is the ideal order of the
universe that exist in the mind of God.
• Human life is a precious gift from God.
Nothing in the world can outweigh it
because it is part of God’s eternal law.
Life Principle: Human life is inviolable
• Natural law as a participation in the eternal law is revealed in nature especially
human nature. This is the moral law, to which people are naturally inclined to
act or do good and avoid evil.
Action Principle: Do good and avoid evil
• It is basically the nature of human persons to survive, to reproduce, to
socialize and to know the truth and God. These enable people to do good and
choose those that pleases their God.
Survival Principle: Self-preservation is basic to all beings
• All beings naturally preserve themselves by all means. Every being normally
takes care of its own life, and transmit it to the next generation. Thus, to
commit suicide is unnatural and immoral.
Propagation Principle: All species propagate for self-preservation.
• All living species including humans are naturally sexual. This enables them to propagate
their own species and preserve life. They rear and care for their own offspring.
Morality Principle: There is built-in natural law that governs the morality of human
thinking and behavior.
• Human law refers to the positive laws (including civil and criminal laws) that provide precise
guidance and rules of behavior. It supports the natural law so that if they do not, they are
unjust and could be disobeyed. This is a necessary law in order to maintain peace and order
because it promotes harmony and unity despite diversity.
Social Principle: Humans as social beings live in peace and harmony with others.
• Divine law refers to the special revelation of God’s will in the Scripture of the Old and New
Testaments. It focuses on how people should become holy and attain salvation not only here
and now but in the final end. Jesus is said to be the truth and the light that whosoever come
to him will have an everlasting life.
Truth Principle: Humans use their will and reason in seeking the truth which is
found in God.
• Aquinas believes that human persons have rational appetite or will that guide all acts
achieve their ends or goods. All there ends or goods ultimately leads to happiness,
which is not power, glory, fame, wealth, honor and pleasure.
• Happiness is not found in material world and created things; it is only found in God
in who is the source of everything that is good and perfect.
• The ultimate happiness in God is a moral principle that dictates every behavior. The
closer the behavior is to happiness or God, the better it is and the farther it is to
happiness, the worse it is.
• Happiness is and will be through the moral virtues because there is no happiness
without virtue and no virtue without self-struggle.
These are the four cardinal virtues (Latin: cardo – hinge or source):
1. Prudence Principle. • the ability to recall and learn from
• Prudence is the “right reason in action.”
facts, experiences and mistakes.
• Prudence or practical wisdom as the “mother
or measure of all the virtues and emotional • is open-mindedness that
health” is the ability to cautiously choose recognizes and accepts
appropriate actions that best corresponds to
circumstance of given situation.
limitations.
• It is the proper disposition that controls, • It also entails smartness in
rectifies and directs emotions and desires, assessing situation, getting clues,
and knows necessary information in order to
do the right and good actions. It is called the
adjusting appropriately or being
“mother of beautiful character” and the subtle, discreet and highly
secret to becoming beautiful. intuitive.
 These are the four cardinal virtues (Latin: cardo – hinge or source):
2.Courage Principle
• “perseverance in adversity.”
• Moral Courage is being cautious but certain
in front of danger and risk.
• It is the strength and endurance to control
emotions and to bear suffering, fear,
uncertainty, anxiety and pressure.
• It is humbly swallowing pride and using
failures or limitations as advantages.
• Moral courage is supported by good reasons
or moral principles such as integrity,
honesty, common good and justice which
may be greater than life in some situations.
3. Justice Principle
• Justice is giving what fairly belongs to others
and to God.
• Justice is fairness that consist in giving to God
and neighbor what is due to each of them.
• It is giving them what rightly belongs to them
as part of a good and just society and being a
social being.
• This disposition enables people to respect
others and their rights so that they can live
harmoniously, peacefully and prosperously.
• Being just is to constantly being
conscious of one’s behavior as it may
affect others.
 These are the four cardinal virtues (Latin: cardo – hinge or source):
4. Temperance Principle
• Temperance is the practice of self-control,
abstention and moderation.
• is self-restraint, self-control, self-
regulation and moderation towards
attraction to pleasure and created goods.
• Every self-restrain or self-regulation
ultimately leads to a sound reason.
• Others call temperance as “moderation in
all things.”
• Self-control in the simple aspects of
life reflects not only a strong character
but also a happy life.
• Self-indulgence and sensuality are
forms of intemperance that may drive
people towards enslaving and additive
sins or vices.
**Nevertheless, all these four cardinal
virtues for Aquinas will fail and could
not reach the highest happiness without
the theological virtues of faith, hope
and love.
• Faith is disposes to recognize, believe and trust in God.
• Hope disposes people to always long or wish for Him and to be always with
Him because he is the only true happiness.
• Love finally disposes people to desire Him, to serve Him and to worship Him.
• To exercise these virtues, people should contemplate on the God’s will and not
according to the will of people and the human reason.
• Anything opposes these virtues are called sins. The sins: against faith are
unbelief, skepticism, agnosticism, apostasy and heresy; against love are envy,
bitterness, greed, hate, animosity, sedition and treason.
• Thomistic Principle: What is good or right is anything done out of virtue
because it brings happiness with God.