Q (VE1) or Q (VE2) - Research Paper Example

Virtue and Happiness Based on Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics, virtue is defined as the mean achievement of a feeling – one that does not exist in excess or in deficiency with references to the particular individual (Aristotle 5b). Aristotle defined happiness by drawing upon an example of what anger constitutes, and how the feeling of anger does not constitute what can be said to be our ethical (moral ethics) being. However, how well or badly we manage the feeling of happiness is what concerns others’ opinions of us.

In terms of the definition of ethics, which is itself a mean, ethics (how we are trained to handle any situation) is plainly the cause of the achievement of the ‘average’ feeling of happiness (happiness does not have a measure but either a lack or presence of it) (Aristotle 10a). Some of the moral virtues that Aristotle listed in his work include joy, pity, envy, confidence, appetite, friendliness, emulation, and more feeling-related human attributes. They are all considered to have an average, unlike such feelings as happiness and anger that stand as distinct feelings and can only be described by way of how they are expressed and not how much of them we can assess.

If I were the shepherd in Plato’s story (Plato par 1-7), I would consider it ethical to wear the ring because the powers that come with it are bound to bring me a feeling of protection and, subsequently, happiness. The ethical dimension to it is the ability to acquire the average feeling of satisfaction knowing the power I derive.Works CitedAristotle. Nimachean Ethics: Book I. (Translated by W. D. Rose). (350 B.C.). Internet Classics. Web. http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.1.i.html.Aristotle. Nimachean Ethics: Book II.

(Translated by W. D. Rose). (350 BC.). Internet Classics. Web. http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.2.ii.html.Plato. The Republic: Book II. (Translated by Benjamin Jowett). (360 B.C.). Internet Classics. Web. http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.3.ii.html.