in individuals. In AristotleÆs view, moral virtue is attained through repeating actions that are in and of themselves morally good and ethical. Virtuous choices lead to happiness, the ôhighest of all goods achievable by actionö to Aristotle (Book 1, Ch. 4).
A sign that the individual has a virtuous outlook or character is the natural pleasure that results from doing virtuous acts. Aristotle (Book 1, Ch. 3) goes out of his way to make certain that any excessive behavior is continent with virtuous behavior. The center position or ômeanö is what men aim to achieve, but this is not an easy task and is only arrived at through repetitive acts of virtue that stem from perception not reason. Virtue is a mean that falls between the poles of two vices, ôexcessö and ôdefect,ö for, as Aristotle (Book 2, Ch. 6) makes clear, ômen are good in but one way, but bad in many.ö
The way in which men are good is to find the mean, virtue, which lies between excess and defect, ô[virtue] is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect; and again it is a mean because the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue finds and chooses that which is intermediate,ö (Aristotle, Book 2, Ch. 6). We arrive at this mean through perception of right and wrong, a rational choice stemming from perception and leading to a center between excess and defect. As Aristotle (Book 2, Ch. 6) makes this clear in Nicomachean Ethics when he asserts, ôVirtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e., the mean relative to us, this being determine
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