Aristotle's Argument Essay: What Is Moral Virtue

What is moral virtue? Although, due to infinite opinions it may be difficult to answer, Aristotle offers us insight into the common thread of all morality. He says that every art, every science, every action has a goal, an end that is aspired to. This end is always good. “The end of medical science is health; the end of military science, victory; of economic science, wealth.”(Aristotle, 22) Everything that we, as humans, decide to do is for the good of something. Now when we ask the question, “What is good?” it proves, yet again, problematic arriving to one consensus. The good in life is happiness, but happiness may differ from one man to another. Furthermore, within a lifetime, what makes a person happy may change because life experience or his current circumstance. The lowly majority often find that pleasure is what fulfills happiness, while men of high caliber find that happiness is brought about by honor. Ultimately, happiness is fulfilled by action. “Happiness then, the end to which all our conscious acts are directed, is found to be something final and self-sufficient.”(Aristotle, 24) Once we come to the end of an action, there is desire for something more.
“A man is not praised for being frightened or angry, nor is he blamed just for being angry; it is for being angry in a particular way.”(Aristotle, 28) Our virtues are expressions of these emotions. Virtue is the balance that is found when the mind explores all of the actions that can be taken in any given situation. “We may now define virtue as a disposition of the soul in which, it has to choose among the actions and feelings, it observes the mean relative to us.”(Aristotle, 30) Moral virtue is a mean between polar opposite actions. It is very difficult to find that balance, but it must be the goal. Aristotle lists off many virtues with their corresponding excess and defect. Over and over, the mean of different opposite actions is found to be the morally