ETHICS

DEBBIE M. PEREZ
Behavioral and Social Sciences Education Department
UNIVERSITY OF BATANGAS
 Introduction to Virtue Ethics of Aristotle
• From our previous lessons, we learned about Protagoras whom, was inspired
with Herodotus who claimed that what is good is relative to a specific culture
hence the development of ethical relativist.
• This chapter will focus on Aristotle’s virtue ethics which started from Plato’s
Philosophy wherein Plato’s philosophy was inspired by Socrates. Aristotle was
then considered to be the most intelligent student of Plato.

Socrates Plato Aristotle

 Introduction to Virtue Ethics of Aristotle
• Socrates was a relativist as proven in the writings of
Plato (who was his student) who believed in the
objective standards while noting how difficult it was for
a person to identify what is really the objective ethical
standards that one should uphold.
• He pointed out that the ethical standards could not
be the pleasure and pain but good and evil.
• Good deed = when one is doing justice to others.
• What is justice for Socrates? It is when there is a
balance between the rational(reason), spirited, and
Socrates appetitive(desires) aspects of every person’s soul.
• Happiness = A person who has a well-ordered soul
which means the one who is doing good deeds for
the others.
 Introduction to Virtue Ethics of Aristotle
• What is good life? Good life means realizing his function and in
every function given, one must fulfill it.
• For Socrates, there are three orders of the soul
(vegetative, sensitive, and rational.)

1. Vegetative = natural functions

2. Sensitive = emotions/feelings
Socrates 3. Rational = use of reason
 Introduction to Virtue Ethics of Aristotle
• Just as there are three orders of the soul according to Socrates,
there are three levels of the society according to Plato:
1. Philosopher-King = rule the society
2. Military(Soldiers)/Guardian = guard the society
3. Peasants/Farmers = producers of the society
• Each of the particular has roles to play. When will injustices
arise? In an instance when a peasant/farmers would function as
philosopher-king. It is important that a person fulfill his
function.
• When is an action is considered to be good/ethical? It is
obtained when a human person performs his function in the
society.
Plato
These ethical principle started by Socrates and developed by
Plato influenced the ethical beliefs of Aristotle, who was then
considered to be as the most intelligent student of Plato.
The Virtue Ethics
Aristotle
▪ He earned the reputation of being the mind and the reader of
the school (Academy).
▪ Plato’s Academy is consisted of two parts: the body which is the
students, and the brain which is Aristotle.
▪ Aristotle, which was supposedly be replacing Plato as the head
of the Academy, the trustees of the school picked a native
Athenian instead.
▪ Another reason: he opposed some of the doctrines of Plato.
▪ Aristotle trained the Alexander the great, son of King Philip of
Macedon.
▪ Founded his own school ‘Lyceum.
▪ Methods of teaching is ‘paripatetics.’ giving lecture while
strolling(walking) along the garden path.
The Philosophy of Aristotle
• He was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Plato.
• As a reaction to Plato, he held that a thing would undergo
change only insofar as the nature of such thing permits it
to be such. There must be a principle within such a thing
to allow for the change.
• Although the principle vary according to the kind of change
involved, in general, they can be referred to as the
principle of actuality (act) and the principle of potentiality
(potency). This teaching is called the hylomorphic
doctrine.
The Human Person for Aristotle
▪ A human being is composed of body and soul.
▪ Body and Soul are not separate entities, rather they are
correlative constituents of one being.
▪ Man being composed of body and soul is nether a body nor a
soul.
▪ Aristotle held that man is composed of a body and a soul. The
body serves as the matter. The soul forms the entelechy, the
definitive form of the body.
▪ The soul has two main parts:
1. The irrational soul, which is connected with the body, is divided
into the vegetative part and the desiring part.
2. The rational is subdivided into phronesis (the practical intellect)
and the speculative intellect. ( or which is pure thought or
intellection, the level of contemplation.)
 Man

Body Soul

Irrational Soul Rational Soul

Phronesis Speculative intellect

Vegetative desiring
is the practical • Close to reason
• Activities of 1) epithumia -
intellect that • CONTEMPLATION
nutrition, growth unruly and irrational
properly decides to • Uniquely human activity
and reproduction. sense desires and
act. It takes the (distinctive nature)
• Happens whether covetousness
you like it or not.
appropriate means
2) Thumos -
• Share w/ plants in order to atain the
spontaneous
and non-human end.
impulses
• Aims to control
3) boulesis - wishes
the desiring
and desires
• Share w/ non-
• (role)
human
The Virtue Ethics
▪ Man has REASON – it makes man different
from all other creatures.
▪ Man’s reason makes him resemble to the
Supreme Reason (rules and guides the
destinies of individual and nations, and lead
all things to their proper ends)
▪ Speculative intellect is that which is closely
connected with reason.
▪ Through contemplation, man will realize that
all things are leading to their proper ends
(Teleological – purpose/end).
The Virtue Ethics
2 Types of End
a. Instrumental end – means for other ends
b. Intrinsic end – done for its own sake.

▪ Aristotle tied the word GOOD to the special

function (purpose) of a thing.

▪ Human person is good only when he is functioning

as a human person.
The Virtue Ethics
The Aristotelian Ethics
Versions of Aristotle’s moral philosophy
a. Eudemian
b. Nicomachean (considered as the ethics of Aristotle)
c. Magna Moralia

▪ Ethics is not only science (knowledge which deals with absolute and
eternal truths) ART (art of living well)

▪ Everything exists for SOME PURPOSE.

What is Happiness for Aristotle?
▪ Man seeks happiness (eudaimonia – a
person is really alive rather than just
merely existing).
▪ Full of life.
▪ Happiness is not connected with pleasure.
▪ Pleasure is not the goal/end of life, same
thing as the acquisition of wealth.
What is happiness for Aristotle?
▪ The highest and fullest happiness comes from a life of
reason and contemplation—not a life of inactivity or
imbalance but a rationally ordered life in which
intellectual, physical, and social needs are all met under
the governance of reason and moderation (Soccio, 186).
According to Aristotle, a reasonable person does not
avoid life. Rather, he engages in it fully.
▪ Man can only live a full life if he would be living with
the polis or the society.
▪ A human being is a political creature designed by nature
to live with the others.
 The Virtue Ethics
What is that particular action that will lead the human person to
this ultimate happiness?
▪ From the objective point of view, a morally virtuous act consists
of a measured activity, following the rule of the (mesotes) or just
middle, i.e., "neither deficient nor excessive”
▪ Any action that is coming from the just middle is ruled by reason,
which orders the desires and passion into a harmonious whole.
Mesotes = Just middle (neither deficient nor excessive

Vice VIRTUE Vice

Deficient (midpoint) Excessive

“Golden Mean”
Any action that is done or indulged excessively or
insufficiently would go out of bounds and would become Avoid the two extremes
unreasonable and improper to the nature of the human Right spot Ex. Too much and too little
being.
The Virtue Ethics

What is a virtuous act?

▪ A virtuous act is that which proceeds from a
habitual state or disposition acquired through
constant practice, where the doing of the
virtuous act has become a kind of second
nature on the part of the human person.
▪ a virtuous act is that which proceeds from the
right intention.
The Virtue Ethics
▪ A moral virtue is a rationally measured activity following the rule
of the just middle, motivated by right intention and proceeding
from a permanent disposition acquired through habitual action.
An Action that Proceeds from Contemplation
▪ In order for the human person to be sure that his action is done in
permanent disposition, such action should be done in the act of
contemplation.
▪ Whenever an action is performed based on contemplation, such
action is said to be coming from (phronesis) or the practical
wisdom, which provides the insight to the truth about the intrinsic
worth and excellence and beauty or goodness or the (kalon) of the
action done.
Moral standards
▪ An action of the human person is good if it originates from
contemplation. A person must be able to have a good idea and
such idea must be transformed into action.
▪ Right intention
▪ The goodness of the action of a human person depends upon the
goodness and badness of its effect to others.
• If it imposes harm/injure others = evil/immoral
▪ A person who is performing his action according to his function
(ergon) in the most excellent way (arête) and in a habitual fashion
is acting as a human person. (moral character).
▪ It is important to establish one’s character based on his good
deeds inasmuch as such character will establish the value of the
human person as a human person.

ERGON (function) ARETE (excellence) HABIT KALON (goodness)

The Virtue Ethics
Critique on the Aristotelian Ethics
▪ Aristotle held that every human person is aiming towards the
attainment of eudaimonia, which is considered by Aristotle as
the highest happiness.
▪ Aristotle also upheld the value of mesotes, the principle of the
Just Middle, which states that the basis of morality is the
avoidance of the two extremes.
▪ Consequently, aiming for eudaimonia may be contrary to the
idea of the just middle because eudaimonia aims for the highest
happiness which is an extreme.
▪ If the basis of morality is the middle position, then aiming for
the best would be considered an extreme and therefore not
good.
 In general..
▪ It was Plato (his teacher) who influenced Aristotle’s Philosophy.
▪ Happiness = activity of the soul in accordance with virtue –excellence (arete)
▪ An action is good if it is a product of contemplation which has a right intention.
▪ The goodness of the action of a human person depends upon the goodness and
badness of its effect to others.
▪ Human is a social being which his/her happiness can be determined by the society.
(polis)
▪ HABIT determines CHARACTER in being a good person where in doing good things
there are no rules needed.
▪ Knowing the right thing to do is the product of contemplation.
▪ “Knows what is right. Do it”