Does Aristotle tell us in his ETHICS to be vicious in order to be virtuous?
Date Submitted: 07/04/2003 13:41:49
Category: / Social Sciences / Philosophy
Length: 8 pages (2082 words)
Category: / Social Sciences / Philosophy
Length: 8 pages (2082 words)
After Aristotle instructs us about how to become virtuous in Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics he concludes that "we should lean sometimes in the direction of excess and sometimes in the direction of deficiency, for by doing so we shall most easily attain the mean and goodness." Some would interpret by this that Aristotle believes that the training or effort by which one is brought to the mean, which is virtue, involves doing what …
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…what is bad.
Thus, by applying Aristotle's definition of virtue to his process for becoming virtuous, we have shown that Aristotle actually instructs us to do good instead of bad things, and that it is because of our obscured vision that it appears that he is telling us to do bad things. So although bringing about good from evil only belongs to God, we try to imitate him, if only equivocally, even in this matter.
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