DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
GE ETH1
Week 13: Virtue as Excellence
Concept Digest
VIRTUE AS EXCELLENCE
Achieving the highest purpose of a human person concerns
the ability to function according to reason and perform an
activity well or excellently. This excellent way of doing
things is called virtue or arete by the Greeks. Aristotle is
quick to add that virtue is something that one strives for in
time. Being excellent individual works on doing well in her
day-to-day existence.
What exactly makes a human being excellent? Aristotle says
that excellence is an activity of human soul, therefore we need
to understand the structure of a person’s should which must be
directed by her rational activity in an excellent way.
According to Aristotle, human should is divided onto two parts:
(1) irrational element and (2) rational faculty.
(1) Irrational element consists of vegetative and appetitive
aspects.
a. Vegetative aspect functions as giving nutrition and providing
the activity of physical growth in a person. This part is not
in the realm of virtue because it cannot be dictated by
reason.
b. Appetitive aspect works as a desiring faculty of man. The act
of desiring is an impulse that runs counter to reason and
most of the time refuses to go along with reasons.
(2) Rational faculty consists of moral and intellectual
concerns. These two aspects are basically where the function of
reason is exercised.
c. Moral, which concerns the act of doing.
d. Intellectual, which concerns the act of knowing.
One rational aspect where a person can attain excellence is
in the intellectual faculty of the soul. As stated by
Aristotle, there are two ways by which one can attain
intellectual excellence: philosophic and practical wisdom.
Philosophic wisdom deals with attaining knowledge about the
fundamental principles and truths that govern the universe
(examples, general theory on the origins of things. It helps
one understand in general the meaning of life. Practical
wisdom, on the other hand, is an excellence in knowing the
right conduct on carrying out a particular act. Meaning, one
can attain a wisdom that can provide us with a guide on how to
behave in our daily lives.
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DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
Although the condition of being excellent can be attained by
a person through the intellectual aspect of the soul, this
situation does not make her into a morally good individual.
Aristotle suggests that although the rational functions of a
person (moral and intellectual) are distinct from each other,
it is necessary from humans to attain the intellectual virtue
of practical wisdom in order to accomplish a morally virtuous
act.
In carrying out a morally virtuous life, one needs the
intellectual guide of practical wisdom in conducting the right
choices and actions. Aristotle made a sharp distinction between
moral and intellectual virtue. In discussing moral virtue,
Aristotle says that it is attained by means of habit. Being
morally good is a process of getting used to doing the proper
act, thus the saying “practice makes perfect” can be applied to
this aspect of a person. A moral person habitually chooses the
good and consistently does good deeds. It is through one’s
character that others know a person. Character then becomes the
identification mark of a person. For example, when one
habitually opts to be courteous to others and regularly shows
politeness in the way she relates to others, others worked
start recognizing her as a well-mannered person. The Filipino
term mabuting pag-uugali precisely reflects the meaning of
moral character. One can have a mabuting pag-uugali or masamang
pag-uugali.
MORAL VIRTUE AND MESOTES
As maintained by Aristotle, it is the middle,
intermediate, or mesotes for the Greeks that is aimed by a
morally virtuous person. Determining the middle becomes the
proper tool by which one can arrive at the proper way of doing
things. Based on Aristotle, a morally virtuous person is
concerned with achieving one’s appropriate action in a manner
that is neither excessive nor deficient. In short, 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. General speaking, our feelings and passions are
neutral that they are neither morally right nor wrong. But the
rightness or wrongness of our feelings, passions, and abilities
lies in the degree of their application in a given situation.
For example, it is right to get angry at an offensive remark
but it is not right to get angry at everyone because you were
offended by someone. One can be excessive or deficient in a
manner by which we manifests these feelings, passions and
abilities.
Mesotes determines whether the act applies is not
excessive or deficient. For Aristotle, the task of targeting
the mean is always difficult because every situation is
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DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
different from one another. Thus, the mesotes is constantly
moving depending on the circumstance where a person is.
Therefore, the task of being moral involves seriously looking
into and understanding the situation and assessing properly
every particular detail relevant to the determination of the
mean. Targeting the middle entails being immersed in a moral
circumstance, understanding the experience, and eventually,
developing the knowledge of identifying the proper way or the
mean to address a particular situation.
“a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, that is, the mean
relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that principle by
which the man of practical wisdom would determine it”
Aristotle’s discussion ultimately lead to defining what
exactly moral virtue is —
Moral virtue is first, the condition arrived at by a
person who has the character identified out of her habitual
exercise of particular actions. Second, in moral virtue, the
action done that normally manifests feelings and passions is
chosen because it is the middle. This means that in choosing
the middle, one is looking at the situation and not at oneself
in identifying the proper way that feelings and passions should
be dispensed. Third, the rational faculty serves as the guide
for the proper identification of the middle is practical
wisdom. The rational faculties of a person, specifically
practical wisdom, aid in making a virtuous person develop the
habit of doing good. Habit is not simply borne out of
repetitive and non-thought-of activities in a person. Habits
for Aristotle are products of the constant application of
reason in the person’s actions.
Aristotle clarifies further that not all feelings,
passions, and actions have a middle point. When mean is sought,
it is in the context of being able to identify the good act in
a given situation. However, when what is involved is seen as a
bad feeling, passion, or action, the middle is non-existent
because there is no good (mesotes) in something that is already
considered a bad act. For example, when someone murders
someone, there is nothing excessive or deficient in the act:
murder is still murder. Further, there is no intermediary
(mediator) for Aristotle in the act because there is no proper
way that such act can be committed.
Aristotle states:
But not every action nor every passion admits of a mean; for some have names that
already implies badness, e.g., spite, shamelessness, envy, and in the case of
actions, adultery, theft, murder; for all these and suchlike things imply by their
names that they are themselves bad, and not excesses or deficiencies of them. It is
not possible, then, ever to be right with regard to them; one must always be wrong.
Nor does goodness or badness with regard to such things depend on committing
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DAVAO CENTRAL COLLEGE, INC.
Juan dela Cruz Street, Toril, Davao City
Landline No. (082) 291 1882
Accredited by ACSCU-ACI
adultery with the right woman, at the right time, and in the right way, but simply to
do any of them is to go wrong. It would be equally absurd, the, to expect unjust,
cowardly, and voluptuous action there should be a mean, an excess and a
deficiency; for at that rate there would be a mean of excess and of deficiency, an
excess of excess, and a deficiency of deficiency..
Aristotle also provides example of particular virtues and
the corresponding excesses and deficiencies of these. The table
shows some of the virtues and their vices:
Excess Middle Deficiency
Impulsiveness Self-control Indecisiveness
Recklessness Courage Cowardice
Prodigality Liberality Meanness
In the table, Aristotle identifies the virtue of courage
as the middle, in between the vices of being coward and
reckless. Cowardice is a deficiency in terms of feelings and
passions. This means that ice lacks the capacity to muster
enough bravery of carrying herself appropriately in a given
situation. Recklessness, on the other hand, is an excess in
terms of one’s feelings and passions. In this regard, one acts
with a surplus of guts that she overdose an act in such
rashness and without any deliberation. The virtue of having
courage is being able to act daringly enough but able to weigh
up possible implications of such act that she proceeds with
caution.
It is only through the middle that a person is able to
manifest her feelings, passions, and actions virtuously. For
Aristotle, being superfluous with regard to manifesting a
virtue is no longer an ethical act because one has gone beyond
the middle. Therefore, one can always be excessive in her
action but ann act that is virtuous cannot go beyond the
middle. Filipinos have the penchant of using superlative words
like “over”, “super”, “to the max” and “sobra” in describing a
particular act that they normally identify as virtuous.
Perhaps, Aristotle’s vie on virtue is prescribing a clearer way
by which Filipinos can better understand it.
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