The virtue of ethics as define by Aristotle in its simplistic form is to discover the nature of human happiness. Happiness is the highest good and the end at which all our activities ultimately aim. The difficulty is that people don’t agree on what makes for a happy or good life‚ so the purpose of the ethics is to find an answer to this question. The answer is imprecise because practical circumstances vary a great deal when considering a person’s life as a whole. Aristotle defines virtue as a
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Kelcey PHIL 1320 Brant September 23‚ 2010 An Argument against Egoism I shall argue that the ideas of both psychological and ethical egoism are fundamentally flawed and should not be practiced. Egoism is flawed because it ignores the fact that people have a predisposition for compassion toward others that cannot be completely expelled from their motives of action. Egoism is also flawed due to the fact that altruism cannot coexist with egoism; therefore‚ because there is altruism in the world
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person’s life well and how we get there. Aristotle believes that the nature of morality is grounded in the function of persons‚ meaning that we must act in order to become happy and fulfilled. What are the functions of persons and how does one acquire virtue? To live a good life is to aim towards living a good life by acquiring habits that make one become good by doing good. Essentially human activity is aimed towards acquiring happiness for themselves and others to achieve a status of well-being. The
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Book II W. D. Ross translation Book II 1 Virtue‚ then‚ being of two kinds‚ intellectual and moral‚ intellectual virtue in the main owes both its birth and its growth to teaching (for which reason it requires experience and time)‚ while moral virtue comes about as a result of habit‚ whence also its name (ethike) is one that is formed by a slight variation from the word ethos (habit). From this it is also plain that none of the moral virtues arises in us by nature; for nothing that exists by
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Socrates and Meno do not obtain a definition of virtue‚ while Socrates thinks that virtue is a kind of knowledge‚ and if virtue is knowledge‚ then it should be able to be both defined and taught. But most virtuous persons (virtue being some sort of excellence or another) don’t seem to be able to teach "virtue" to their own children (as told to Meno by Socrates). As a consequence of this‚ it is problematic for both Plato and Socrates to suppose that virtue is a sort of knowledge. What can be inferred
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Confucianism. Humanitarianism is the core belief of Confucianism. The belief system is based on the philosophy that humans are‚ by nature‚ communal and social beings and that everyone has a specific role to play. The Five Great Relationships and the Five Virtues are concepts followed in Confucianism. The Five Great Relationships Confucius believed that people have specific roles in society. He believed that their inherent desire to live around other people‚ or in a society‚ depended on people knowing how
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promise to her baby. The most important example‚ however‚ is Mama’s admittance to Katrin that she had no desire to be rich. She likes the way her life is‚ and is happy just the way things are. 3. In Book II‚ Aristotle addresses moral virtue. This moral virtue‚ which
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What is a good life exactly? This term will mean different things to different people‚ and yet I believe there are the same ingredients that all “good lives” share‚ even from the classic Eurasian time until present day. Virtues of character‚ which are also called ‘moral virtues’‚ seem to be more complex and are an integral part of the completeness of life that is said is necessary for a good life. There seems to be a pattern with people of always trying to achieve being a good person. Is being a
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Honors English 10; 4P 3 December 2013 I abide by the Honor Code Charity “Peace is the work of justice indirectly‚ in so far as justice removes the obstacles to peace; but it is the work of charity directly‚ since charity‚ according to its very notion‚ causes peace.” - St. Thomas Aquinas Charity is the kindly or sympathetic disposition to aid the needy as a result of deep feeling or understanding. Charity exists in many different forms. It can be seen in the forms of helping the poor‚ those
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the dynastic cycle; corruption infiltrated the government and the system fell apart to war between states for power and peasant revolts. This lead a philosopher named Confucius to develop a set of ideals to live by. These codes were built on such virtues as honesty‚ trust‚ responsibility‚ and honor (Doc1). The drastic transition from Confucianism to its opposite‚ legalism is said to be the result of rulers who were open to new ideas on how to govern their ever growing empires. Sayings like "There
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