Blog Prompt 13:  Are the virtues merely a means to happiness? What is virtue? How does one become virtuous? What does Aristotle mean when he says that virtue is a state of character? Give examples and explain.

No, I think virtues are a gateway to happiness. But let me explain, a virtue is anything excellent with value in itself. So if you think about some of the main virtues that everyone should have like: honesty, patience and empathy etc…then you can see that through these things called virtues we can live life happier, then trying to become these virtues. What do I mean by that? Well, I think of it this way if you try to chase a thing like patience and you spend a ton of time being patient and you try and try than becomes like a thing you’re trying to pursue rather than an idea you are adapting. Wheres if you practice being patient then it becomes a different story, because you adapt it into your life rather than chasing it. Aristotle believes that life consists of a pursuit of ends. An “end” is anything with esentric value. Aristotle also believes that for humans the ends we seek are that of a “eudaimonia.” This in his eyes is like a utopia or as our professor said, “the daimon life.”

Eudaimonia is a form of life. It is the flourishing life, or in other words the type of life we would want pure children to have. We are taught to view it this way because when we imagine the life for our children it is much more wholesome rather than a life we vision for ourselves. It consists of many different virtues and concepts of happiness and pure forms of love that many do not wish upon themselves, and this is why we are taught to see it as the life we would want our children to have. It’s a complete life yet it is also an activity that we can work towards.

States of character are virtues of character. In other words they arise out of like activities. He explains them as four different categories. These categories are split within right judgement, right action and right feeling. Right judgement is knowing the right thing to do, right action is doing the right thing, and right feeling is enjoying doing the right thing. He splits these up into four different main categories: vicious, weak, strong and virtuous or excellent. A vicious person has no’s across the board in each of the three slots: right judgement, right action and right feeling. which means that they do not know the right thing to do they don’t do the right thing and finally they don’t enjoy doing the right thing. Aristotle believes this is the lowest state of character. Because they not only don’t do the right thing they don’t enjoy it and most importantly they don’t know what is the right thing to do. A weak person is a person who knows has right judgement, but doesn’t have right action nor feeling. Aristotle says this level is higher because at least they know what the right thing is and are more likely to do the right thing later in the future. A strong person is one who knows the right judgment and even does the right judgment but they do not enjoy doing it. So for example, say you are moving and you ask your friend to help you move. They agree to help you spend all day helping you finish up, but they complain the whole time while helping. This is an example of a strong person because they know the right thing, they do the right thing but they do not enjoy doing the right thing. Finally a virtuous person would be a person that has yes’s across the board so, they know the right thing, they do the right thing and they enjoy doing the right thing. So this person would be the one who knows its right to help you, actually helps you move, and enjoys helping you out.