Virtue for the Greeks is equivalent to excellence. ... Aristotle defines moral virtue as a disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices. We learn moral virtue primarily through habit and practice rather than through reasoning and instruction.
What is Aristotle’s moral theory?
Aristotle. The moral theory of Aristotle, like that of Plato, focuses on virtue, recommending the virtuous way of life by its relation to happiness .
What does Aristotle mean by his claim that moral excellence is an intermediate between excess and defect?
Now virtue is concerned with passions and actions, in which excess is a form of failure, and so is defect, while the intermediate is praised and is a form of success; and being praised and being successful are both characteristics of virtue.
What is moral excellence in philosophy?
moral excellence – the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong . virtue , virtuousness.
What does Aristotle say about human excellence?
Aristotle argues that human beings define an ideal life by achieving happiness , and this can be done by living life to its full potential, by having a balance of moral excellence and righteousness in society.
What is the highest form of happiness according to Aristotle?
Aristotle concludes the Ethics with a discussion of the highest form of happiness: a life of intellectual contemplation . Since reason is what separates humanity from animals, its exercise leads man to the highest virtue.
What is the highest good according to Aristotle?
For Aristotle, eudaimonia is the highest human good, the only human good that is desirable for its own sake (as an end in itself) rather than for the sake of something else (as a means toward some other end).
What are the main ideas of Aristotle?
In aesthetics, ethics, and politics, Aristotelian thought holds that poetry is an imitation of what is possible in real life ; that tragedy, by imitation of a serious action cast in dramatic form, achieves purification (katharsis) through fear and pity; that virtue is a middle between extremes; that human happiness ...
What is the aim of human life according to Aristotle?
To summarise from Pursuit of Happiness (2018), according to Aristotle, the purpose and ultimate goal in life is to achieve eudaimonia (‘happiness’) . He believed that eudaimonia was not simply virtue, nor pleasure, but rather it was the exercise of virtue.
What is human good according to Aristotle?
Aristotle begins the Nicomachean Ethics by emphasizing that the virtuous person should understand the nature of the best good achievable by humans in action, something Aristotle calls the “human good.” In Nicomachean Ethics I 7, he defines the human good as “ activity of the <rational part of the human> soul on the ...
What is the idea of excellence?
Excellence means greatness — the very best. Achieving excellence is never easy to do. Excellence is a quality that people really appreciate, because it’s so hard to find. Excellence is the quality of excelling, of being truly the best at something.
What is moral excellence according to the Bible?
Definitions of moral excellence. the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong . synonyms: virtue, virtuousness. type of: good, goodness.
What are basic morals?
While morals tend to be driven by personal beliefs and values, there are certainly some common morals that most people agree on, such as: Always tell the truth . Do not destroy property . Have courage .
What is the life of excellence?
In the Nichomachean Ethics,[1] Aristotle argues that what we seek is eudaimonia , a term unfortunately translated in this reading as “happiness.” is better expressed as the “well-being” or the “excellence of performing the proper function.” When Aristotle explains human virtue, he is not discussing what we now refer to ...
What is Aristotle’s idea of happiness?
According to Aristotle, happiness consists in achieving , through the course of a whole lifetime, all the goods — health, wealth, knowledge, friends, etc. — that lead to the perfection of human nature and to the enrichment of human life. This requires us to make choices, some of which may be very difficult.
What are the 4 levels of happiness?
- Level 1: Pleasure. The first level of happiness includes the fundamental drivers in your life — physical pleasure and immediate gratification. ...
- Level 2: Passion. ...
- Level 3: Purpose. ...
- Level 4: Ultimate Good. ...
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