Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics, argues that the

To possess the virtue of wisdom, in other words, is to take an action of wisdom again and again. To possess the vice of self-indulgence, one takes self-indulgent actions repeatedly. Moral virtue is demonstrated not by an occasional act of wisdom, for example, but by repeated acts of wisdom:

Moral virtue . . . is formed by habit. . . . None of the moral virtues is implanted in us by nature. . . . We are by nature equipped with the ability to receive them, and habit brings this ability to completion and fulfillment (33).

Aristotle argues that moral virtue, like immoral vice, is a matter of practice. One becomes a good person by practicing the virtues just as one becomes a bad person by practicing the vices. Aristotle argues further that the morally virtuous individual must find a "mean" or middle ground between excess and deficiency of a particular virtue. For example, a generous person is neither stingy nor extravagant in his actions (83). The individual discovers this mean and puts

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reflects the Greek era in that most people speak of virtue but few put it into action: Most men do not perform such acts, but by taking refuge in argument they think that they are engaged in philosophy and that they will become good in this way. In so doing, they act like sick men who listen attentively to what the doctor says, but fail to do any of the things he prescribes (40). An individual in our society who personifies viciousness--the opposite of virtuousness--is Charles Manson. With respect to cowardice, grouchiness, boastfulness, brutishness, anger, self-indulgence, vanity, short temper, shamelessness (all vices named by Aristotle), and general evil-doing, Manson stands in the pantheon of infamy in our society. Manson is an excellent example of an individual who had none of the requisite moral education so urgently prescribed by Aristotle. To the contrary, his parents and society at large not only utterly failed to provide him with any moral guidance, but gave him modeling which practically encouraged him to pursue a life of crime and destruction. His mother was a prostitute, his father abandoned him, and society treated him as a pariah as both child and man in its institutions. He became an habitual criminal, lea
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