Library Reference: N/A
Amazon Reference: http://www.amazon.com/Contemporary-Moral-Problems-James-White/dp/0534584306/
Quote: "But such a life would be too high for man; for it is not so far as he is the man that he will live so, but in so far as something divine is present in him; and by so muchas this is superior to that which is the exercise of the other kind of virtue."
Learning Expectations:
- to understand the relevance between happiness and values
- to be more aware of philosophical terms
- to understand how important it is to view morality in different ways
- to determine how should this philosophical moral problems are important
- to learn new ideas about Aristotle
Review:
In this chapter, the great philosopher Aristotle disccussed different types of virutes and how an indinvidual can achieve happiness. According to the first few paragraphs, Aristotle explained that happiness coming from the humans is a "life long process." He also added that happiness is something that isn't constant - it keeps on going and going until the 'purpose' of it is finally met. Happiness, as what he explained, is an 'activity of the soul' on which actually, virtue takes place to the soul's potential.
In the next few paragraphs, Aristotle defined virtue. According to him, being virtuous is 'self-sufficient in itself', which later leads to human happiness. Aristotle was able to clearly defnie the difference between the two kinds of virtue: the moral virtue and the intellectual virtue. As when he stated, "moral virtue comes from training and habit, and generally is a state of character that is a mea between the vices of excess and deficiency." This talks about the means and the extremes of a certain action. On the other hand, Aristotle defined intellectual virtue as a virtue that "produces the most perfect happiness and is found in the activity of reason or contemplation."
.There were ideas coming Aristotle which are mainly dicussed, such as having a behavior should be imposed in a person, where a relative mean is present in his action/s. This relative mean is between two extremes - one is for deficiency and another for excess. For a person to be ethical in his virtues, he/she should learn how to master these extremes, controlling them, in any circumstances might happen. The ability to 'balance' between the two is quite challenging for most people. Usually, people end up working with either of the extremes, rather than keeping themselves intact in the relative mean.
Aristotle addressed his ideas about intellectual virtues. Intellectual virtues creates a 'separation' between human forms to animals - making us humans have the ability to rationalize. Humans think and reason, while animals can't. What Aristotle wanted to tell his readers is that we should make ourselves more virtuous as we face the daily challenges of life. Being virtuous is self-fulfilling and self-rewarding - it makes you feel delighted and contented on what you are doing.
If we allow ourselves to experience this in a very long time, in Aristotle’s eyes, we can achieve true happiness.
What I’ve learned:
- How Aristotle defined happiness?
- What are the kinds of virtue?
- What is a relative mean?
- Learning to become virtuous makes a person happy
Integrative Questions:
- How can one person achieve true happiness?
- Is pleasure automatiacally call itself as being happy?
- How does virtue/s affect happiness? In what sense?
- How does happiness affect the way people think about morality?
- How one can be called as 'insensible'?
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