Aristotle Essay

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Aristotelian Ethics in the Current Character Education Programs

Virtues

Virtues can broadly be said to be the mean between vicious extremes of character traits (Irbe par . 3 . Aristotle explains virtues through an analysis of the human soul which makes up and gives life to a living human being . The human soul has two elements : The rational element which is distinctly human and the irrational element which is shared with animals . The irrational element harbors the vegetative faculty responsible for growth and nutrition . An organism

which excels in this faculty can be said to have a nutritional virtue (IEP par 28 . A second faculty that is responsible for our emotions as well as desires such as joy , hope , fear and grief is called the appetitive faculty and this is both irrational , since even animals also experience desires , and also rational because humans have the capacity to control these desires helped with reason . This human to control these desires is what is called moral virtue which is the focus of morality (IEP par 30 . The third virtue is called the intellectual virtue . There is a purely rational part of the soul called the calculative , which is charged with the human ability to contemplate , perform logical reasoning as well as perform scientific principles . The mastery of these abilities is what is called intellective virtue (IEP par 30

Virtues (such as the moral virtue , are acquired through learning , being the result of teaching and practice . Since moral values are character...