3. • Aristotle the greatest philosopher of them all.
• Aristotle comes from a royal line of the world’s
foremost philosophical thinkers.
• One of the greatest philosopher.
4. • His illustration teacher was Plato, who in turn was
taught by that philosopher of philosophers,
Socrates.
• The philosophical impact of Aristotle was so
great that throughout the medieval period
whenever the term “the philosopher” was
used, it signified Aristotle.
7. • He founded a university which was named “The Lyceum”
and his scholars are referred to as “Perpatetics” (to walk
about).
• The school of ethical thought which Aristotle profounded
is termed “Self Realizationism, implying that the goal of
the ethical life is the actualization or the fulfillment of one's
potentialities, one's true nature, or one's gifted talents.
10. • The philosophical treatise
from which the ethics of
Aristotle is derived almost
exclusively is
“Nicomachean Ethics”,
named after his son
Nicomanchus to whom the
book was dedicated.
11. • Aristotle open his treatise on ethics with a definition of
good.
“Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action
and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this
reason, the good has rightly been declared to be that at
which all things aim.”
• Whatever one seeks and pursues as worthwhile is by
virtue of that fact good.
12. • Morality is not merely a matter of doing what is
good or right; it consists of knowing what is right
otherwise one will be at a loss to act intelligently.
• Anyone can commit any action or live in the sense
of merely existing; the task of life is to live well.
• Aristotle learned this from Socrates who
taught: “The unexamined life is not worth
living.”
14. • Aristotle’s concern is for an intrinsic value, some final
value which is good in and of itself alone, and not as a
means to some other good.
• Summum bonum (greatest good) exist is of paramount
importance because of its implications example, if there is
a chief good then moral action has been defined for us: it
is that act which helps to materialize the summum bonum;
on the other hand , evil would be whatever action
impedes or is detrimental to the realization of the greatest
good of man.
15.
16. • Accordingly, a life of ignorance is fit only for animals and
is quite unbecoming to man; in fact, it implies more than
ignorance, it implies moral degeneration.
• What is the greatest of all goods? What is that will end
man’s search and lead to no other end for it needs none?
What is the end of all man’s striving?
“ Let us return to the good we are seeking, and ask what it
can be. . .
17. • Therefore if there is only one final end, this will be
what we are seeking , and if there is more than
one, the most final of these will be what we are
seeking.
• Now such thing called “HAPPINESS”, above all
else, is held to be; for this we choose always
desirable in itself and never for the sake of
something else.
18.
19. • Happiness is chosen for its dear sweet self alone,
and not that it subserves another goal, “but honour,
pleasure, reason, and every virtue we choose
indeed for themselves. . . but we choose them also
for the sake of these, nor, in general, for anything
other than itself. . .
20. • Happiness, is something final and self- sufficient, and is
the end of action.
• Although it is possible to challenge Aristotle's contention
that man kind prizes happiness above all of life's values,
it is a formidable position when one judges the matter
from the standpoint of the actions and attitudes of
average persons.
21. • There are many persons
who stand ready to
sacrifice many values,
such as truth, religion,
family, friends, honesty,
integrity, etc., for the sake
of happiness.
For example:
22. • A similar situation holds true in the ethical realm: the
reason why many persons behave morally is that they will
be happier if they do, whereas if they break the moral
code, e.g. commit murder they fear either public censure
or hell's punishment.
• In fact, if heaven were merely a moral place devoid (solely
a place of holiness) very few persons would (if they had to
go alone) choose to go there.
• The motivating factor is happiness.
23. • Ironically, most persons seek happiness, but fewever
find it, and for good reason, the hedonistic paradox, a
principle which states that if anyone goes in direct
pursuit of happiness, he will never succeed in finding it,
since happiness is a by-product and issues as a
concominant of that which cannot be technically
designated “happiness”.
• Happiness is a state of mind.
For example:
• Happiness eludes the person who pursues it.
24.
25. • How then does one find happiness?
- Aristotle answers: By fulfilling, realizing, actualizing,
developing one's true nature with all of its talents and
potentialities.
• Persons who are misfits in life or in their place of
employment can never find permanent happiness for the
simple reason that they are forcing their constitutions to
do what is unnatural for them.
• (For Example)
26. • When one finds his rightful place in life, and everyone has
some suitable place according to Aristotle, for nature
(God) has deemed it so, happiness results.
• Animals are content when free to live like animals;
humans can be happy only when they live normal lives
harmonious with their natural constitution and abilities.
“ The happy man lives well and does well; for we have
practically defined happiness as a sort of good life and
action.”
27. • Happiness issues as the
result of a life well lived,
that is a moral life in which
one has fulfilled the
obligation of actualizing
his true self, it follows
then that the happy person
is good (moral) also.
• “Happiness then is the
best, noblest, and most
pleasant thing in the
world.”
28. Aristotle’s Concept of Virtue
• The virtuous life is one in which a person’s true nature has
been cultivated and fulfilled; it is a life of self- actualization
or self realization, hence a life which fructifies into
happiness.
• Virtue issues as a result of practicing the right act; it is the
product of a habit.
29.
30. • The term “moral virtue” and the word “habit” come
from the same root; in the Greek to word virtue is
formed by a slight variation of the word habit.
• According to Aristotle it is habitual moderation.
31. • Virtue resembles moral action, it is not identical with it
since moral action is to do the right thing, to the right
person, at the right time, in the right manner, to the right
extent, and for the right purpose, whereas virtue demands
that the right act flow effortlessly from the personality as
its characteristic trait.
32. • The preceding prescription of a right act should make a
person pause to think whether he has ever comitted a
right act in as much as it involves the timing of the deed
as well as the mode of it's performance, the intention, the
other person involved, the degree, etc.
33. • The assiduous practice of a right act blossoms into a
virtue, the ability to discern and perform virtuous deeds is
not within the intellectual grasp of everyone;consequently,
not everyone can achieve the heights of virtue equally -
that prerogative belongs exclusively to the enlighted.
• A definition of a grossly immoderate act would be to do
the wrong thing, to the wrong person, in the wrong
manner, to the wrong degree, and with the wrong intent.
34. • “Moral Virtue is a mean, then and in what sense is it so,
and that is a mean between two vices, the one involving
excess, the other deficiency, and that is such because
its character is to aim at what is intermediate in passions
and actions, has been sufficiently stated.
• Moral evil will always be found to be an extreme measure
whether the physical, mental, or moral life is under
consideration.
35. • It is the nature of . . . things to be destroyed by defect
and excess, as we see in the case of strength and
health. . . both excessive and defective exercise
destroys the strenght, and similarly drink and food
which is above or below a certain amount destroys the
health, while that which is proportionate both produces
and increases and preserves it.
• so too it is in the case of temperance and couarge and
the other virtues.
36. • we are now in a position to determine virtues (means) and
vices (extremes): If courage is a virtue then the extreme
on the side of defeciency must be the cowardice and the
extreme on the side of excess, fool-hardiness
• “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
• Practically any activity can be tested for its moral value by
Aristotelian methods; take, for example, the consumption
of alcoholic beverages:
• When and how much ought one to drink?
37. • “Temperance” (which incidentally, in the Aristotelian
vocabolary, is another word for “moderation”.
• A rather interesting and peculiar relationship maintains
between what is a fully developed virtue in an individual ,
and what is merely a right act.
38.
39. • Virtues are internally located; they are human
characteristics, where- as a right act is an external
physical exercise, that is, an overt act; consequently, a
person may commit a right act without necessarily being
virtuous and a virtuous person may succumb to an
immoral deed without forfeiting his virtuous nature.
40. The Twelve Aristotelian Virtues
• Aristotle lists twelve specific virtues, each with its
accompanying vices; one on the side of defect
(deficiency) and the other at the opposite extreme,
excess.
VICE OF
DEFICIENCY
VIRTUE OR MEAN
STATE
VICE OF EXCESS
1. Cowardice Courage Foolhardiness
2. Insensibility Temperance Licentiousness
3. Illiberality Liberality Prodigality
4. Meanness Magnificence Vulgarity
5. Humilty Magnanimity Vanity
6. Lack of Ambition Unnamed Ambitiousness
(overdone)
42. • Concerning friendship, three forms exist:
1) Friendships of pleasure
2) Friendship of utility
3)The good and perfect frienship.
43. The Threefold Nature of Man
• According to Aristotle, man has not a single nature,
but a threefold nature: animal, vegatable, rational;
the Aristotelian definition of man encompasses all
three:
• Man is a (vegetative) rational animal.
44. • The physical body represents the vegetative
aspects; for example, human hair grows as does
any form of vegetation.
• If one seeks true happiness, or at least his full
complement and full measure, then he must
actualize to the fullest extent, all three natures.
