Aristotle In Virtue Ethics

Aristotle In Virtue Ethics Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, scientist as well as logician who lived between 384 and 322 BC. Aristotle is highly regarded as one of the famous thinkers in various fields such as political theory. He is an ancient thinker who was an effective contributor together with his teacher Plato. His desire and contribution started at an early age, at the time he was in school ‘in Plato’s academy in Athens’. He has moved places in search of philosophical and biological knowledge. He moved to places such as Asia and Lesbos. His life was known to have the greatest influence to his political thought. Through his travelling, he had various experiences in different kinds of political systems and hence gained a lot in the field of politics. Not only in history he also made an effective contribution to other areas such geography whereby he concluded that the earth was round instead of the earlier believe that it was flat. Aristotle contribution has been of great positive eff ect to man’s life and even in today’s community there are still his findings ‘which are applicable’. One of the many areas that Aristotle contributed and his contribution was noted ‘is the topic on virtue ethics? Briefly virtue ethics is concerned with traits of characters that are found to be essential for human flourishing. Virtue ethics emphasizes the role played an individual’s character and also the virtues that determine his behavior. It forms the basis to normative ethics ‘which the opposite of deontology’. According to Aristotle, happiness is referred is an activity, hence referring it a way of life and it is depicted on how we act and not how or whom we are. The general concept behind virtue ethics is that it looks into what the individual should choose to be rather than depending on the external factors to change a person. People have the power to choose what they ought to be rather than depend solely such as culture. Vi rtue ethics is currently one of three major approaches in normative ethics. It looks more into the moral character rather than duties and rules (deontology) or rather one that deals with consequences of actions simplified as consequentialism. According to Aristotle, virtue means excellence happiness whereby people can only be happy when they have fulfilled their basic function or purpose. People need to act well and practice reasoning. Aristotle divided virtue into intellectual and the moral virtues. According to Aristotle the highest target of all people is directed by happiness which he defined as continuous contemplation of the internal and external truth. This happiness is attained trough virtuous life as well as development of wisdom and reason. An individual needs sufficient external goods to ensure opportunity for virtuous action. Virtuous acts need mindful choice and moral reason or inspiration. However, moral virtue cannot be achieved abstractly but rather requires moral ac tion in any social environment. Both ethics and politic are close to each other as Aristotle refers to politics like a science of making the society in which people can have the good life as they develop their full potential. Despite the work of Aristotle, he tries hard to convince us what is virtuous. This has differed from the teaching from the modern moral philosophers. This is because he put very little effort on the moral development of individuals. For one to be a good person he needs to practice so as to gain the good habit and the virtue is a good state of soul that is acquired through habit of an individual.