PSY HW6

3. Explain the three conditions (pages 15-19 of the Module presentation) and how they combine to make someone virtuous.

Aristotle’s Three Conditions For Acting Virtuously

For an act to be virtuous, or for one to say that one acts virtuously not by accident but in a mindful way, the virtuous agent must have a working understanding of what a virtue is; a virtuous act must be done for its own sake and the act must follow from a firm disposition, meaning that it must be consistent with the way one usually acts and feels, and not be a one-shot incident.

The First Condition

Here is a gloss on what these three conditions mean. For the first, consider the following. Very small children adjust what they do and their displays of emotion when they see parents or older siblings approve or disapprove of them. Suppose Bill, as a child, would share toys whenever his parents gave him lavish praise. Bill is now a young adult and gives money to charity. He does this without expecting praise from anyone. When asked why he does this, he answers that he believes we all have to do our best for the common good. For an Aristotelian, this would count as having a knowledge of what one is doing. Bill’s act of giving is not just a fluke. He understands what generosity is.

The Second Condition

For the second condition, consider the following scenario. Bill knows what generosity is. His boss is collecting donations for his (the boss’s) favorite political party. Bill does not think this is appropriate and would not be inclined to make a donation. However, he decides to go along because he thinks his boss will be impressed with him and infer that Bill might be a good team player. Bill understands what the virtue of generosity is, but, in this case, he is not acting out of generosity, although he is capable of doing so when he thinks the cause is appropriate.

The Third Condition

Here we can draw on Kant’s example and turn it around. The person who enjoys helping others and does so effortlessly, without being pained by it, is a person who truly demonstrates the virtue of generosity. The person who is pained by acting generously, but does it once with great effort, is not a person who is in possession of the virtue of generosity. He will need much more practice before he gets there. Once is not enough. Nevertheless, making oneself act generously, just once, is a praiseworthy beginning. But doing so regularly and effortlessly is what has moral worth.

Aristotle’s Virtues I

Here is the list of virtues as Aristotle discussed them in Nicomachean Ethics. Lists are just lists. They are not meant to be exhaustive, but representative. The following are virtues that were thought to be appropriate for Aristotle’s audience members, who would be expected to acquire some position of responsibility or leadership in the community.

Feeling or Behavior	Virtue	Excess (too much)	Defect (too little)
Fear and confidence	Courage	Excessive fearlessness and rashness	Cowardice
Pleasures (mostly) and pains	Temperance	Self-indulgence	Insensibility

Aristotle’s Virtues II

Feeling or Behavior	Virtue	Excess (too much)	Defect (too little)
Giving and taking money (for ordinary people)	Liberality	Prodigality (giving more than one takes)	Meanness (taking more than one gives)
Giving money (for very rich people)	Magnificence	Tastelessness and vulgarity	Being grudgingly mean

Aristotle’s Virtues III

Feeling or Behavior	Virtue	Excess (too much)	Defect (too little)
Honor	Proper pride	Empty vanity	Undue humility
Anger	Good temper	Irascibility	Inirascibility

Aristotle’s Virtues IV

Feeling or Behavior	Virtue	Excess (too much)	Defect (too little)
Talking about oneself	Truthfulness	Boastfulness	Mock Modesty
Exchanging pleasantries with others, humor	Wittiness, ready wit	Buffoonery	Boorishness

Aristotle’s Virtues V

Feeling or Behavior	Virtue	Excess (too much)	Defect (too little)
Being pleasant in relation to others (in general)	Friendliness	Obsequiousness or being a flatterer	Being quarrelsome and surly
Shame	Modesty	Bashfulness	Shamelessness

Aristotle’s Virtues VI

Feeling or Behavior	Virtue	Excess (too much)	Defect (too little)
The pain felt in relation to how well other people are doing	Righteous indignation (being pained when others enjoy undeserved good fortune)	Envy (being pained at seeing others enjoying any good fortune)	Spite (taking pleasure - the opposite of pain - in seeing others suffer misfortune)
The tendency to share in goods relevant to prosperity and adversity	Being just	Graspingness: the tendency to take more than one's share in relation to what one merits	No name: the tendency to give others less than they merit