Do you agree with Aristotle?

Question

Aristotle offers a modeling theory of ethics, wherein we should emulate the actions of the moral exemplar - the perfectly virtuous person. Aristotle argues that by doing so we will become more virtuous. This is because for Aristotle virtue is a habit. To be virtuous is simply to be in the habit of responding in the right sorts of ways in the rights sort of circumstances.



Consider an analogy discussed this week. Imagine that you decided to learn to play the guitar. But instead of getting instructional booklets, you decide to watch close-up videos of some of the greatest guitarists ever and simply try to copy their finger movements. You start on slo-mo until you can match the fingering on a bunch of different songs perfectly. gradually you increase the speed of the videos and your mimicking until you can play a bunch of different songs featuring all the chords, progressions, etc. one would need to know to play the guitar. It seems as if you would reach a point where you are no longer copying the other guitarists. No, now you yourself can play the guitar.

Or consider another analogy. Many of us learned to write our letters (A, B, C, etc.) through tracing. By tracing already-written letters, we gain the motor skills to write the letters ourselves. We are no longer tracing. We now have this skill.

So too with virtue, Aristotle says. By emulating the moral exemplar, we ourselves gain the skills of virtue. We get habituated in acting virtuously. And that is all virtue is.

What do you think of this process of becoming virtuous - of becoming a high-character, good person. Do you agree with Aristotle? Why or why not?

Answer 1

 Aristotle believed the desire to be virtuous had been built into us. It is our job as humans to fulfil our nature and be virtuous. The way to be virtuous is to learn through experience. Virtue forms out of habit. We will learn to live a virtuous life as we repeat virtuous actions. He also suggested we find virtuous people, or moral exemplars, to guide us in life.

Central to Aristotle's virtue ethics was the concept of the golden mean. Aristotle thought of potential actions existing on a moral spectrum. At the end of each spectrum was vice, which constituted extreme action. Aristotle believed ethical actions were the mean, or average, between two points of extreme vice.