Virture according to Aristotle - Essay Example

Virtue According to Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics Based on book 2 of the Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, virtue in the Ethics specially agrees with human excellence. There are 2 kinds of virtue. These are the moral virtue and the intellectual virtue. Moral virtues are learned through routine and constant practice. On the other hand, intellectual virtues are learned through instructions (Payne).Virtues are said to have its place in the soul. In the absence of virtue, a person cannot be happy.

Therefore, an unhappy person is missing something in his soul. According to Aristotle, the soul is consisted of 3 components. These components are a person’s passion, faculty and state of character. However, amongst the 3 components, Aristotle has only identified moral virtues with the state of character. The state of character can be believed as complex inclinations or personalities to behave and feel in certain ways under certain conditions (Payne).A person’s appetite can be linked to his desire.

The higher his appetite or desire, the more he would likened to be aiming for that goal or vision. This is the reversely proportional to a person with a lower appetite (Aristotle & Ross, p. 20-21).A person can be said that he is born with the potential of being morally virtuous. But for that person to be one, he should be trained on doing what is right to be truly virtuous even as an adult. Virtue is learned by constant practice and not just simply keeping it in mind. It should be shown to others rather than be kept in one’s head (Aristotle & Ross, p. 20-21). Virtue is a person’s disposition to perform the right way.

In practical circumstance, there is an absence of rules. Right conduct can only be witnessed in some sort of mean in extremes which are deficiencies and excess. Between the feelings of fear and confidence, courage is the mean of the two. Aristotle stated that:“Of the people who exceed, he who exceeds in fearlessness has no name (many of the states has no name), while the man who exceeds in confidence is rash, and he who exceeds in fear and falls short in confidence is courage” (Aristotle & Ross, p. 28). Vices according to Aristotle are the bad characters of a person (IEP.Com). It can be concluded that virtues and vices are connected with the same things.

They are being driven by the same factors. Virtue is the positive effects of these factors while the vice is the negative one.Works Cited:Aristotle, Ross, W.D. Nicomachean Ethics. Constitution Society. October 25, 2011. Retrieved November 27, 2011. http://www.constitution.org/ari/ethic_00.htm.Payne, W. Russ. Aristotle on Virtue. Retrieved November 27, 2011. http://personal.bellevuecollege.edu/wpayne/aristotle_on_virtue.htm. Sachs, Joe. Aristotle: Ethics. Internet Encyclopedia of Society. July 22, 2005.

Retrieved November 27, 2011. http://www.iep.utm.edu/aris-eth/.