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Moralvirtue

1) Aristotle believed that developing practical wisdom comes from life experiences and knowing the right choice in any situation is difficult, which is why elders who have gained experience can provide advice. 2) A virtuous person aims for the middle ground, or mesotes, in their feelings, passions, and actions according to circumstances rather than acting in excess or deficiency. 3) For Aristotle, moral virtue is a characteristic involving rational choice of an action that is a mean relative to the individual, as determined by practical wisdom.

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Shaila Ivory
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424 views1 page

Moralvirtue

1) Aristotle believed that developing practical wisdom comes from life experiences and knowing the right choice in any situation is difficult, which is why elders who have gained experience can provide advice. 2) A virtuous person aims for the middle ground, or mesotes, in their feelings, passions, and actions according to circumstances rather than acting in excess or deficiency. 3) For Aristotle, moral virtue is a characteristic involving rational choice of an action that is a mean relative to the individual, as determined by practical wisdom.

Uploaded by

Shaila Ivory
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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MORAL VIRTUE AND MESOTES

As stated by Aristotle, developing a practical wisdom involves learning from experiences. Knowledge is
not inherent to a person. Knowing the right thing to do when one is confronted by a choice is not easy.
In other words, she is able to mature and grow in her capacity of knowing what to do and living a
morally upright life. This is why when it comes to life choices, one can seek the advice of elders in the
community, those who gained rich life experiences and practical wisdom because they would be able to
assist someone's moral deliberation.

Bro. Armin Luistro, with his practical wisdom and experience, has observed the possible efffect of
television violence on the young so he issued guidelines on television viewing for children. He says that
good values instilled on children are "sometimes removed from the consciousness of young people"
because of television violence. Based on Aristotle, a morally virtous person is concerned with achieving
her appropriate action in manner that is neither excessive nor deficient. In other words, virtue is the
middle or the intermediary point in between extremes. One has to function in a state that her
personality manifests the right amount of feelings, passions, and ability for a particular act.

A morally virtous person targets the mesotes. For Aristotle, the task of targetting the mean is always
difficult because every situation is different from one another. Thus, the mesotes is constantly moving
depending on the circumstance where she in. The mean is not the same for all individuals. As pointed
out by Aristotle, the mean is simply an arithmetical proportion. Mesotes determine whether the act
applied is not excessive or deficient. Likewise, an individual cannot be good at doing something
haphazardly but reason demands a continuous habituation of a skill to perfect an act.

Moral virtue is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, that is, the mean relative to
us, this being determined by rational principle and by that principle by which the man of practicam
wisdom would determine it.
—it is arrived at by a person who has a character identified out of her habitual exercise of particular
functions
—the action alone that normally manifests feelings and passion is chosen because it is the middle
—rational faculty that serves as a guide for the proper identification of the middle is practical wisdom.

Aristotles clarifies further that not all feelings, passions, and actions have a middle point. When a mean
is sought, it is in the context of being able to identify the good act in a given situation. In the study
mentioned wherein children are beginning to consider violence as "a way to solve problems," it seems
apparent that they would like to think that there is somehow a "good" in an unjust act since it can
become a problem-solver. Aristotle's view is contrary to this. As an act, violence, in itself, is bad. A
person cannot employ violence as if it were a virtue or a middle measure in between vices of being
"deficient" in violence or being "excessive" of the same act.

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