LECTURE/ HANDOUT 12- VIRTUE ETHICS -ARISTOTLE

THOMAS AQUINAS’ ETHICS

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of lecture handout 12, the student will be able to:

 understand Aristotle’s Ethics which is contemporary in application.

 improve our lives, and care for its principal concern which is the nature of the
human being.
 understand the principal concern of Aristotle which is delineating a morally
appropriate character, a good human being by focusing on virtues both intellectual
and moral.
 understand Aristotle’s idea that essence or essential nature of beings, including
humans, lay not their cause or beginning, but at their end.
 work into reaching their full potential as a human being of virtue.
 recognize what true happiness (eudaimonia) really is.
 understand Aristotle’s goal of teaching people about “what they really should be”
that is, the character or the sort of person they should struggle to become .

What virtues do you think are well practiced in your life?

INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW

 Aristotle’s ethics has been given the highest regard by Philosophers since time immemorial,
 There are three general descriptions that can be said about Aristotle’s ethics: self-
realizationism ,eudaimonistic, and aretaic.
 A telos is an end or purpose.
 Aristotle does not agree with Plato’s belief in a separate realm of forms. Instead he believes
that rational beings can discover the essences of things and that a being’s essence is its
potential fulfillment.
 Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics argues that all human beings seek happiness but in
different ways.
 True happiness is tied to the purpose or end of human life.
 Reason employed in achieving happiness leads to moral and intellectual virtues.
 Living in accordance with reason is viewed as vital in self realization or developing one’s
potential.
 Aristotle believes that ethics is an inquiry to human good and that wise persons seek an
end that is self-sufficient, final and attainable over one’s life.
 Aristotle’s idea of happiness should also be understood in the sense of human flourishing.
This flourishing is attained by the habitual practice of moral and intellectual excellence or
virtues.
 Aristotle employs the word hexis to refer to moral virtue. The denotation of this word is an
active state, a condition in which something must actively hold itself in action.
 Actions done within reasonable manner means it is not done to excess or deficiency.
Actions done in excess and deficiency are called vice. Virtue lies neither in the vice of
deficiency nor in the vice of excess. It lies in the middle of both. Therefore moral virtue is
the golden mean between the two less desirable extremes.

Definition of Virtue Ethics

It is a moral philosophy that teaches that an action is right if it is an
action that a virtuous person would perform in the same situation. According to the
theory, a virtuous person is someone who acts virtuously and people act virtuously if
they possess and live the virtues. A virtue is a moral characteristic that an individual
needs to live well.
Virtue Ethics outs emphasis on developing good habits of character and
avoiding bad character traits or vices. Virtue ethicist, such as Aristotle, holds that people
live their lives trying to develop their faculties to the fullest extent. We have many
faculties to develop such as intellectual, physical, social, moral, and so on.
Basically, the virtues are the freely chosen character traits that people
praise in others. People praise them because (1) they are difficult to develop; (2) they
are corrective of natural deficiencies (for instance, industriousness is corrective of one’s
tendency to be lazy) (3) they are beneficial both to self and society.

Aristotle’s Ethics
Most virtue ethics theories take their inspiration from Aristotle who
declared that a virtuous person is someone who has ideal character traits.
Aristotle was born in a small colony of Stagira in Greece. That was
fifteen years after the death of Socrates, the teacher of Plato. His father was
Nichomachus, who happened to be the court of physician during the reign of King
Amyntas. Because of this affiliation, Aristotle became the tutor of Alexander the Great,
who was the grandson of the King. When Aristotle’s father died, he left Stagira and went
to Athens to join the Academy, a famous school of Plato, and became student of Plato
for twenty years. He joined the school at the age of seventeen. His known works that
are related to moral philosophy are: Nicomachean Ethics (NE), Eudemian Ethics(EE)
and the Magna Moralia.
Three general descriptions, which are interrelated, can be used to depict
Aristotle’s ethics. First, his ethical system may be termed “self-realization.” In his
philosophy, when someone acts in line with his nature or end (telos) and thus realizes
his full potentials, he does moral and will be happy. Aristotle’s view is also a type known
as eudaimonistic. As such, it focuses on happiness (eudaimonia), or the good for man,
and how to obtain it. Finally, his moral philosophy is aretaic, or virtue-based. Whereas
act-oriented ethics is focused mainly on what we should do, a virtue ethics is interested
basically in what we should be, that is, the character or the sort of person we should
struggle to become.

Highlights of the Teachings of Aristotle

1. Aristotle’s Telos
It is an end or purpose. He believes that the essence or essential nature
of beings, including humans, lay not at their cause (or beginning) but at their end (‘telos)
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics can be thus summarized in this manner:
All humans seek happiness (“well being” ), but in different ways. True
happiness is tied to the purpose or end (telos) of human life. The essence (or telos) of
human beings (that which separates and distinguishes them as species) is reason.
Reason employed in achieving happiness (human ‘telos’) leads to moral virtues (e.g.
courage, temperance, justice and prudence) and intellectual virtues (e.g. ‘science’, ‘art’,
practical wisdom, theoretical wisdom).” (“Aritotle”n.d.)
In terms of his ethics, Aristotle thus believes in the excellence of
philosophical contemplation and virtuous actions stemming from virtuous persons. By
virtuous actions, he means those which the person with wisdom would choose because
what is good is obvious to such a person.

2. Happiness and Virtues

Aristotle believes that ultimate human goal is self-realization. This entails
achieving one’s natural purpose by functioning or living consistently with human nature.
Accomplishing it, in turn, produces happiness; whereas inability to realize it leads to
sadness, frustration, and ultimately to poor life. It therefore behooves us to act in
accordance with our nature so as to be content and complete. In detail, what does
Aristotle mean by human nature?
Aristotle identifies three nature of man: the vegetable or physical, animal
or emotional, and rational or mental. As previously explained, the thing that
distinguishes humans from all other creatures is the rational nature or the ability to
reason. Rational development is thus deemed the most important, as it is uniquely
human. Accordingly, living in accordance with reason is viewed as vital in self-
realization or developing one’s potential.
This self-realization-the awareness of our nature and the development of
our potentials—is the key to human happiness. But what is this happiness in line with
Aristotle’s ethical view?
Ethics, for Aristotle, is the inquiry into the human good. This is to say that
the purpose of studying ethics is to make ourselves good, though Aristotle assumes that
we already want to become good. This human good is eudaimonia or happiness.
Aristotle observed that wise persons seek an end that is self-sufficient,
final, and attainable over one’s life. This end is happiness which all human beings want.
Aristotle also considers happiness as the summum bonum- the greatest good of all
human life. He adds that it is the only intrinsic good, that is, the good that is pursued
for its own sake. While all other things, such as pleasure, wealth, and honor are merely
means to an end, happiness is man’s ultimate goal as it is an end itself.
In fact, Aristotle fundamentally connects happiness to virtues, as he
explains happiness in terms of activities manifesting the virtues. Human good, he says,
is the activity of the soul in accordance with excellence or virtue. Aristotle’s happiness,
therefore, is not much of a subjective feeling of well-being, but human being itself, being
the human good. Moreover, his account of eudaimonia is different from hedonist and
utilitarian account of happiness as pleasure.

3. Virtue as Habit
Aristotle’s idea of happiness should also be understood in the sense of
human flourishing. This flourishing is attained by the habitual practice of moral and
intellectual excellences, or ‘virtues’.
Moral virtue, for Aristotle, is the only practical road to effective action.
The virtuous person, who has a good character, sees truly, judges rightly, and acts
morally.

4. Virtues and the Golden Mean

Virtue refers to an excellence of moral or intellectual character. As
mentioned earlier, Aristotle distinguishes two kinds of virtues: The first corresponds to
the fully rational part of the soul, the fully rational part of the soul, the intellect; the
second pertains to the rational soul which can ‘obey reason’. Moral virtue is an
expression of character, formed by habits reflecting repeated choices, hence is also
called virtue of character.
For Aristotle, moral virtues follow from our nature as rational beings—
they the traits or characteristics that enable us to act according to reason. But what is
acting according to reason?
Acting in a reasonable manner is done when we choose to and indeed
act in a way that neither goes to excess nor defect. Excess and defect normally indicate
a vice. Virtue lies neither in the vice of deficiency nor in the vice of excess but in the
middle ground. Thus, moral virtue is the golden mean between the two less desirable
extremes.
Aristotle mentions four basic moral virtues: courage, temperance,
justice and prudence. Courage is the golden mean between cowardice (deficiency)
and tactless rashness (excess). The coward has too little bravery, the reckless
individual has too much, the courageous shows just the proper amount of bravery.
Temperance is the mean between gluttony (excess) and extreme
frugality (deficiency). Both overindulgence and denying oneself of bodily pleasures
make one less happy; whereas practicing temperance makes one virtuous and fulfilled.
This directly exemplifies the connection between being happy and being virtuous.
Justice is the virtue of giving others right what they deserve, neither
more nor less. Now, what helps us to know what is just or reasonable in various
circumstances, enabling us to keep away from excess and defect is the moral virtue
called prudence or wisdom.
The question why we should be moral was also answered by Aristotle by
his doctrine of virtue. By simply including justice or morality among his list of virtues, he
implies that man has to be moral. Additional moral virtues include generosity, civility,
trustworthiness, reliability, sociability, dependability, honesty, sincerity, gentleness,
tolerance, benevolence, cooperativeness, empathy, tact, kindness, and good temper.
Aristotle nonetheless admits that some actions, such as adultery, theft,
and murder, do not admit of a mean and are always wrong. We could never excuse
anyone for committing just the right amount of murders, nor defend someone for
committing just the right amount of murders, nor defend someone for committing
adultery with the right person at the right time in the right way. In the same vein, no
culture considers envy, spite, dishonesty, insensitivity, cruelty, arrogance, injustice,
cowardice, self-centeredness, and the like to be virtue.

Thomas Aquinas Ethics

OBJECTIVES:
 To inculcate the value of ethically evaluating actions before doing it.
 To understand the stand of Thomas Aquinas in comparison to the stand of Aristotle.
 To learn that human actions are based not only of their conformity to the natural law
but also of their specific features.

INTRODUCTION/OVERVIEW

 Thomas Aquinas is an Italian philosopher and theologian who ranks among the
most important thinkers of the medieval time period.
 Central to the Aquinas ethics is his typology of laws. For him law means an
ordinances of reason for the common good promulgated by someone who has care
of the community.
 Obedience to law is viewed as participating in or being in conformity with the pattern
or form.
 There is an eternal law which is accessible to human reason because man is part of
the eternal order, part of this law pertains to human conduct
 There are laws that refer to all positive laws. It is exact and forceful provisions of
human law and are very helpful.
 Human laws that against natural laws are not real laws, and people are not obliges
to obey those unjust laws.
 There is a type of law that complements all other types of laws and is disclosed
through sacred text or scriptures and the church which is also directed toward man’s
eternal end.
 Man has natural inclinations to some specific goods.
 All actions are directed towards ends and that happiness is the final end.-Aquinas
 Aquinas defines virtue as” a good habit bearing on activity or a good faculty habit.
 Aquinas believes that all actions are directed towards ends and that happiness is
the final end.
 Happiness in not equated with pleasure, material possessions, honor or and
sensual good but consists in activities in accordance with virtue.
 The autonomous person plays a major role in acquired habits as they involve
consistent and deliberate effort to do an act time and again and despite
obstructions.

Thomas Aquinas’ Ethics

 Also called the Angelic Doctor and the Prince of Scholastics, Thomas
Aquinas (1225-1274) is an Italian philosopher and theologian who ranks among the
most important thinkers of the medieval time period.
In Ethics, Aquinas depends so heavily on Aristotle. Like the Greek
philosopher, Aquinas believes that all actions are directed towards ends and that
happiness is the final end. Aquinas thinks that happiness consists in activities in
accordance with virtue. But like Augustine, Aquinas declares that ultimate happiness is
not attainable in this life, for happiness is the present life remains imperfect. True
happiness then, is to be found only in the souls of the blessed in heaven or in beatitude
with God.
Central also in Aquinas ethics is the typology of laws. By the term ‘law’,
he means an ordinance of reason for the common good, promulgated by someone who
has care of the community.
For Aquinas, there are four primary types of law:
 Eternal law refers to the rational plan of God by which all creation is ordered.
As God is the supreme ruler of everything, the rational pattern or form of the
universe that exists in His mind is the law that directs everything in the
universe to its appointed end.

 Natural law is the aspect of the eternal law which is accessible to human
reason. Because mankind is part of the eternal order, there is a portion of the
eternal law that relates specifically to human conduct. This is the moral law,
the law or order to which people are subject by their nature ordering them to
do good and avoid evil.

 Human law refers to the positive laws. Because natural law is too broad to
provide particular guidance, the human law’s precise, positive rules of
behavior are supposed to spell out what the natural law prescribes. This
human law includes the civil and criminal laws, though only those formulated in
the light of practical reason and moral laws. Human laws that are against
natural law are not real laws, and people are not obliged to obey those unjust
laws.

 Divine law serves to complement the other types of law. It is a law of

revelation, disclosed through sacred text or Scriptures and the Church which is
also directed toward man’s eternal end. Though concerned also with external
aspects of conduct, the divine law is more focused on how man can be
inwardly holy and eventually attain salvation.
 Obviously, the type of law that is primarily significant in Ethics is the
natural law. Part of this natural law is our inherent natural tendency to pursue the
behavior and goals appropriate to us.
According to Aquinas, this natural law is knowable by natural reason. For
instance, our practical reason naturally comprehends that good is to be promoted and
evil is to be avoided. By virtue, of a faculty and moral insight or conscience that Thomas
called synderesis, we also have natural inclinations to some specific goods. Aquinas
enumerates three sets of these inclinations to some specific goods: (1) to survive (2) to
reproduce and educate offspring, (3) to know the truth about God and to leave
peacefully in society. These prescriptions to have families, love God and our neighbors,
and pursue knowledge are but rationally obvious precepts and simply stand to reason.

Features of Human Actions

Aquinas evaluates human actions on the basis not only of their
conformity to the natural law but also of their specific features. He mentions at least
three aspects through which the morality of an act can be determined—in terms of:
 Species of an action refers to its kind. It is also called the object of the action.
Human deeds can be divided into kinds, some of which are good (e.g. improving
one’s own property), some bad (e.g. theft), and some indifferent or neutral (e.g.
walking in the park). Aquinas holds that for an action to be moral, it must be good
or at least not bad in species.

 Accidents simply refer to the circumstances surrounding the action. In ethically

evaluating an action, the context in which the action takes place is also
considered because an act might be flawed through its circumstances. For
instance, while Christians are bound to profess one’s belief in God, there are
certain situations in which it is inappropriate or even offensive and distasteful to
do so.

 End stands for the agent’s intention. An act might be unjust through its intention.
To intend to direct oneself against a good is clearly immoral. Aquinas gives
murder, lying, and blasphemy as instantiations of this ill will. Correspondingly, a
bad intention can spoil a good act, like giving of alms out of vainglory.
Nonetheless, an intention, no matter how good it may be, cannot redeem a bad
act. For Aquinas theft is intrinsically bad. Hence, stealing to give the poor, as in
the case pf Robin Hood, is an unjust act. In this view, converting to a particular
religion, say Christianity, merely for material gains is an unjust act.
Happiness, Moral Virtues, and Theological Virtues
Aquinas believes that all actions are directed towards ends and that
happiness is the final end. He also thinks that happiness is not equated with pleasure,
material possessions, honor, or any sensual good, but consists in activities in
accordance with virtue. A person needs a moral character cultivated through the habits
of choice to realize real happiness.
Aquinas defines virtue as “a good habit bearing on activity” or a good
faculty-habit. Habits are firm dispositions or “hard to eradicate” qualities that dispose us
to act in a particular manner. Notice that not all habits are virtue, but only those that
incline us towards our good or end.
Aquinas differentiates between acquired and infused habits. The
autonomous will of a person plays a major role in acquired habits as they involve
consistent deliberate effort to do an act time and again and despite obstructions. The
infused virtues, on the other hand, are independent of this process as they are directly
instilled by God in our faculties. These virtues are thus divine gifts which elevate the
activities of those who received them.
Aquinas mentions at least two kinds of infused virtues:
 Moral virtues have as their object not God Himself, but activities that are less
virtuous and inferior to the final end. To this kind belong the four basic virtues-
(prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice)

 Theological virtues are concerned directly with God. They provide us with true
knowledge and desire of God and of His will. The virtues of (1) faith which makes
us recognize and believe in the true God, (2) hope makes us wish to be with Him,
and (3) love makes us desire and adore Him. Unlike Aristotle’s virtues, Christian
virtues are not applications of the golden mean between extremes. We ought to
exercise these virtues according to what God demands of us and according to
our capacity as individuals.