These [bad effects of pleasure and pain] are the reason why people actually define the virtues as ways of being unaffected and undisturbed [by pleasures and pains]" (1104b21-25)
It is not imperative to remain indifferent or unaffected by both pleasure and pain to be virtuous, it is only essential that we have the right feelings of pleasure and pain at the right time. Therefore, he goes on defining virtue as the right state in front of pleasure and pain:
We assume, then, that virtue is the sort of state that does the best actions concerning pleasures and pains, and that vice is the contrary state."(1104b26-27)
Thus, Aristotle sums up his discussion and concludes that virtue is all about the feelings of pleasure and pain, and that the actions, even if they are good can decrease virtue when they are done badly:
To sum up: Virtue is about pleasures and pains; the actions that are its sources also increase it or, if they are done badly, ruin it; and its activity is about the same actions as those that are its sources."(1105a15-16)
Hursthouse also summarizes Aristotle's theory about virtue in the same way, asserting that the appropriate feelings are actually what define an action as virtuous:
And, according to virtue ethics, the agent with the inappropriate feelings does not act virtuously, in the very way or manner that the virtuous agent acts."(Hursthouse, 125)
The theory Aristotle proposes of virtue is continued by his definition of the human soul and its 'contents'. He argues that the virtue is a state of soul and of the individual,...
Unlike either deontological or utilitarian ethics, virtue ethics focuses on character. Because virtue ethics are not consequentialist, overall virtue ethical frameworks are more akin to deontological analysis of moral right and wrong. One’s intentions are as important as one’s actions; the consequences of one’s actions are important but not as much as remaining honest, compassionate, and willing to learn. At the same time, Aristotle and other proponents of virtue ethics
Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle said, "The good for man is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, or if there are more kinds of virtue than one, in accordance with the best and most perfect kind" (). According to Aristotle and his Nicomachean ethics, there are two kinds of virtue: intellectual and moral. Intellectual virtues are learned by instruction and moral virtues are learned by practice. According to his theory,
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perceive as Aristotle's best work known work on ethics, Nichomachean Ethics, sheds light on what Aristotle believed was happiness. "…happiness would seem to need this sort of prosperity added also; that is why some people identify happiness with good fortune, while others < eacting from one extreme to the other> identify it with virtue" (Aristotle, Irwin, & Fine, p. 360). His perception of what is happiness implies: that it itself is
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