Aristotle: Virtue
Aristotle is considered to be the philosopher of philosophers, he virtually wrote about everything, he pioneered most of the disciplines like psychology, biology, meteorology and political science. For almost a thousand years Aristotle's theories were unchallenged such was the impact of his philosophy and thought. The medieval philosophy of Scholastics and early Renaissance thinkers borrowed heavily from Aristotle. At the root of Aristotle's philosophy was his doctrine of virtue and natural law. Aristotle believed that everything in life serves a purpose "telos" as he called it and distinguished "efficient" causes from "final" causes. 'Efficient causes are those things or processes that lead to the final cause, they are the means to ends, for example a painter uses paints and brush to create a work of art, the brush and paints are tools, process to make a painting. While the final cause is the end product, the painting. Similarly he saw that every object and every action has a final purpose and this determines its 'good'. Thus if we understand the final good of an organism, we will then be able to understand the necessary natural processes by means of which it will reach that end. According to Aristotle the final good of human beings, the chief end is 'happiness'.
According to Aristotle there was an intimate relationship between virtue and happiness. Virtue (arete) is "excellence in fulfillment of a particular function, while "happiness" (eudiamonia) is a sense of well-being, resulting from achieving "excellence" in the fulfillment of one's...
Aristotle vs. Mill The Greek philosopher Aristotle and John Stuart Mill agreed that the objective of morality was the pursuit of general happiness and the good life in society and in the individual. But they deviated in the concept of, and the manner of arriving at, "the right thing to do," especially in reference to friendships. Mill held that actions are right in the proportion that they tend to promote that
Certainly, rhetoric lends itself to the discovery of truth, as truth (Aristotle suggests) always makes more intuitive and intellectual sense compared to falsehood, and so equally talented rhetoricians will be more convincing sharing the truth than sharing falsehood. However, critics have pointed out that there is so "tension between Aristotle's epistemological optimism and his attempt to come to terms with rhetoric as a culturally and contextually specific social institution....
Aristotle's View Of Friendship Aristotle views friendship as one of the most necessary and integral components to life, something sought after by all men. He goes so far as to imply that without friendship, life is not worth living at all. Friendship is described by Aristotle as one of the most important human needs, more so than power, status or prestige and is held in higher regard than these things by
Aristotle At the very beginning of Book I Chapter XIII, Aristotle states that "happiness is a certain activity of soul in conformity with perfect virtue" (Ethics 1102a). What he means here, quite simply, is that true happiness can only be defined as the state that is achieved in a perfectly virtuous person; it cannot be defined any other way -- not by pleasure, or bestowed honor, or wealth, or any other
What distinguishes man from animals or plants is his capacity to reason. Animals seek pleasure for pleasures sake while human beings have the capacity to reason and, therefore, determine what pleasures to seek that are appropriate. This process of seeking the appropriate pleasures such as heath, wealth, knowledge, etc. allows a human being to enrich his life and lead eventually to a state of happiness. Reasoning allows one to
Aristotle, friendship important virtuous regimes. Why Aristotle "complete" friendship important a healthy One of the most important concepts in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is the notion of friendship. The philosopher attributes a great deal of attention to friendship largely because he believes it is one of the most readily accessible ways of exercising and manifesting virtue. The truly interesting part about this text in relation to the tenet of friendship is
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