Aristotle’s Ethics

1. Aristotle’s Ethics

2. Aristotle’s Ethical Theory • Aristotle knows: Life is an opportunity for eudaimonia • moral virtues of character • intellectual virtue of prudence • interpersonal virtues of justice and friendship • “virtuous life” • Theoretical/knowledge • Practical/leadership

3. The Good for Man = Eudaimonia • final, sufficient in itself • = a fulfilling human i.e. rational, social and physical • Defn = “rational activity with virtue (in a complete life)”(I.7) • Not available to all— • many too limited by opportunity for personal development (slaves, destitute poverty, illness, women) • many societies disordered (wrong values, wrong people in power) • “Human self-actualization” not just a function of intellect or success, but of virtue

4. Moral Virtues and Vices Areas of moral concern Related social institutions* Military and police, defense of country, law and order Marriage and family, physical pleasures Money and personal property, freedom to spend and gift Competitive offices & awards, public recognition and fame Legal, political and economic office, courts and trials by jury Higher education, leadership B/c these institutions and functions = relevant to life/happiness anywhere, these = “universal human virtues” • Risk of harm and fear = courage vs. cowardice • Bodily appetite, pleasure = temperance/intemperance • The use of money, wealth = generosity vs. cheapness • Concern for honor/esteem = magnanimity* vs. servility • Persons/cooperation w/others = justice vs. injustice • Reasoning re: ethics/politics • Megalopsychia is difficult to translate: dignity, proper pride, noble-mindedness, greatness, magnanimity are all possible

5. Freedom and Responsibility • Aristotle’s emphasis on habituation suggests an individual’s character is largely shaped by their nurture, i.e. state and family influence. • “Our moral characters depend on the quality of our activities…it is all-important whether we are trained in one set of habits and pleasures or another.” NE II.1 • But virtue and vice are also due to prohairesis, choice or purpose, suggesting citizens of a free society are shaped not only by others, but also by themselves • “Virtue is a habit of choice, lying in a mean, relative to us, but as determined by reason, such as a wise man would make.” NE II.6

6. Moral responsibility Voluntary Action • Done ‘from within’ and not coerced • Internal vs. external • Done ‘knowingly’ • Of means, of ends • Moral ignorance • Can be impulsive

7. Are we fated by our pasts? • His actions may be voluntary, but the agent may not be psychologically free • “All men seek what seems to them good, but they are not responsible for its seeming good…a man may do wrong through ignorance, thinking it will bring him the greatest good.” • A man’s ‘vision’ of the good may be partly due to his own choices and actions • “Whether a man’s view of his end is partly due to himself of determined by nature, virtue and vice are voluntary...and in fact we are in a sense partly ourselves the cause of our character.”

8. Freedom, Justice and Responsibility • Adult citizens are assumed to be responsible for their actions, and the conditions of their character (vs. willful ignorance, vs. moral carelessness) • They are held to a civic standard of virtue, e.g. laws vs. cowardice in war, adultery, theft • But moral character includes the desire to do good for its own sake—which requires some type of ‘ethical conversion’ or ‘moral vision’

9. The Virtue of Justice Virtue of Justice = --Obeying the Law --Fairness = willingly giving other his due 2 Forms of Justice --Distributive --Corrective 2 Concepts of Justice --Conventional --Natural

10. Justice and Injustice • Injustice1 = crime, lawlessness, i.e. a person unrestrained by law-abidingness • Injustice2 = pleonexia, greedy or selfish desire to have ever-more and ‘out-do’ others Aristotle: the virtue and the vice are rare • Justice1 = social virtue of law-abidingness governed by the law and shame and honor • Justice2 = ethical virtue, gives others their due as a matter of principle • distribute or correct, without prejudice • rights may not all be equal

11. Distributive = how goods/duties ought to be distributed Proportional by some measure Equality Merit/virtue Just man distributes based on principle of justice (e.g. merit or equality), not self-interest or emotion (e.g. envy, bias) Corrective = how punishments ought to be distributed Equally, relative to the harm done No class privileges, e.g. rich vs. poor Righteous judge corrects based on equality before the law, not favoritism or vengefulness Distributive vs. Corrective Justice

12. Justice = a moral virtue More than mere legality A “habit of choice” = willingly regarding others and oneself with the same standards applying principles of distributive corrective justice “Equity” = going beyond letter of your ‘rights’ (V.10) Concept of natural vs. conventional (legal) justice Related to intellect hits the ‘mean’ as determined by reason applying principles of distributive corrective justice moral imagination and consideration = seeing from other’s perspective, connects to “equity” (VI.11) reasoning on natural justice: thinks beyond convention/law as it is Justice and Intellect

13. Conventional = what the laws are Socially relative Change over time, vary in content Laws re: Family Property Liberty Politics based on perceived interest of rulers Natural= what the law ought to be Based on human rational nature Absolute + relative Ideal standards Human needs Highest human potentials But what is possible at a given time/place Based on actual interests of all Conventional vs. Natural Justice

14. Aristotle’s Politics I • Man = “rational political (& familial) animal” • Human needs • Life and reproduction • Family, property • Liberty, share in polis-government