Essay

Aristotle defines the supreme good : an activity of the rational soul in accordance with virtue.

Virtue -----for the Greeks is equivalent to excellence.

A virtuous person: someone who performs the distinctive activity of being human well.

· Having character

· Knowing yourself (Socrates’ reminder “Know Thyself, nothing in excess” @ Temple of Apollo’s door

· Moderation

· Self-control

· Not about what should I do, but WHO should I be?

· Thinking of your life as a whole (The point of ethical reflection)

· Reason and emotion closely allied

Rationality: distinctive activity, that is, the activity that distinguishes us from plants and animals

Humans are distinct above all for having also a rational soul, which governs thought. Since our rationality is our distinctive activity, its exercise is the supreme good.

Aristotle defines moral virtue as:

A disposition to behave in the right manner and as a MEAN between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices.

We learn moral virtue primarily through:

Habit practice

rather than through reasoning and instruction.

Virtue is a matter of having the appropriate attitude toward pain and pleasure.

Happiness is the highest good and the end at which all our activities ultimately aim. All our activities aim at some end, though most of these ends are means toward other ends.

For example:

We go grocery shopping to buy food, but buying food is itself a means toward the end of eating well and economically. Eating well and carefully is also not an end in itself but a means to other ends. Only happiness is an end in itself, so it is the ultimate end at which all our activities aim. As such, it is the supreme good.

ARISTOTLE'S NICOMACHEAN ETHICS /TABLE OF VIRTUES AND VICES

SPHERE OF ACTION OR FEELING	EXCESS	MEAN	DEFICIENCY
Fear and Confidence	Rashness	Courage	Cowardice
Pleasure and Pain	Licentiousness/Self-indulgence	Temperance	Insensibility
Getting and Spending (minor)	Prodigality	Liberality	Illiberality/Meanness
Getting and Spending (major)	Vulgarity/Tastelessness	Magnificence	Pettiness/Niggardliness
Honour and Dishonour (major)	Vanity	Magnanimity	Pusillanimity
Honour and Dishonour (minor)	Ambition/empty vanity	Proper ambition/pride	Unambitiousness/undue humility
Anger	Irascibility	Patience/Good temper	Lack of spirit/unirascibility
Self-expression	Boastfulness	Truthfulness	Understatement/mock modesty
Conversation	Buffoonery	Wittiness	Boorishness
Social Conduct	Obsequiousness	Friendliness	Cantankerousness
Shame	Shyness	Modesty	Shamelessness
Indignation	Envy	Righteous indignation	Malicious enjoyment/Spitefulness