Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines moral virtue as the possession of such qualities as self-control, courage, generosity, high-mindedness, gentleness, friendliness, truthfulness, etc. The possession of such qualities occurs through action---acts of self-control, courage, generosity, etc. Actions of such self-control, courage, etc., occur again and again in the life of the morally virtuous individual. Moral virtue, then, is a factor not of genetics but of action, and particularly repeated action:

Moral virtue . . . is formed by habit. . . . None of the moral virtues is implanted in us by nature, for nothing which exists by nature can be changed by habit. . . . We are by nature equipped with the ability to receive [the virtues], and habit brings this ability to completion and fulfillment (33).

We all, then, possess the capacity to be morally virtuous, but Aristotle says that only through habitual exercise of the virtues in action do we become morally virtuous. Again and again, in specific examples, Aristotle makes clear that moral virtue is a matter of practice, that we become a good person through practicing the virtues, much as one becomes a good musician---or a bad musician---only in the act of playing his or her instrument: "It is by playing the harp that men become both good and bad harpists" (34).

It is also an essential part of the definition of moral virtue, according to Aristotle, that the habits practiced find a middle ground between excess and deficie

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. (37). The child who grows into a virtuous adult has been morally educated to associate the noble and beneficial pleasures with virtue, and the pain of shame with the vices. It is more difficult to achieve the pleasures of virtue---based on rational discovery of the mean between excess and deficiency---than it is to achieve the pleasures of vice: "Both virtue and art are always concerned with what is harder, for success is better when it is hard to achieve" (38). Clearly, then, the child must be educated to pursue the difficult-to-achieve pleasures of virtue, which are long-lasting, and to abstain from the easy-to-achieve pleasures of vice, which are then immediately followed by the pains of vice---shame, hangovers, exhaustion, etc. Such education leads the child to pursue virtue, to shun vice, and to develop those habits of virtuous action which create the morally virtuous individual. We live in an era of both great excess and great deficiency. It is a world of great tolerance of such vices, and is based on a social philosophy which is profoundly permissive. We currently have a President of the United States who, setting aside the issue of the effectiveness of his leadership, is famous for his sexual excesses. Television is

Category: Philosophy - A