Conclusion:
Virtue is not the result of nature.
Premises:
1. No virtues reside in us because of nature.
a. There are two kinds of virtues: intellectual and moral. Intellectual virtues are the result of teaching and knowledge and moral virtues are the result of habits (Book 1:13).
b. With the things that reside in us because of nature, we gain the potential to do them first and later we control our actions (Book 1:13).
2. Arts and virtues are not the same.
a. What is good in the arts is naturally good in and of themselves whereas virtues become good through the person who is good (Book 2:3).
b. Actions are seen as "just and temperate" when they are seen as something that the "just and temperate" man would do (Book 2:4).
3. What is found in the soul is to be considered to be that of passions, faculties, or states of character and virtue is one of them.
a. We feel certain emotions like anger and fear without ever choosing to feel them (Book 2:5).
b. Virtues require choices (Book 2:5).
c. Faculty is simliar to passions so virtue cannot be a faculty either (Book 2:5).
d. Virtue must be a state of character since it is not a passion or a faculty. A state of character is concerned with choices and lying in a mean. Virtue is considered to be the same state of character which is said to make a man good (Book 2:5).
4. Means are the concern for virtue.
a. Virtue is within our own power and it is something that is considered to be voluntary (Book 3:3).
b. Virtue is voluntary because it is within our own power. If a man who is ignorant to what he is doing, then it is said that the man is acting involuntarily (Book 3:1).
I agree with point B under the second main point. To extend that point a little further, in Book 2 in Chapter 2, it says that abstaining from pleasures makes us become temperate, and once we have become temperate we are able to abstain from pleasures (1104b). This connects and extends point B because I think that someone needs to accomplish abstaining from pleasures, in order to become temperate, which would then lead to people viewing that person as just and temperate. And as a result people would see their actions as just and temperate as said in point B. But the part I mentioned in Chapter 2 is important to leading up to point B.
ReplyDeleteMy question to your conclusion is how then is virtue obtained if not through nature?
ReplyDeleteIt is good that you mention the two types of virtue right from the start because the argument should account for both. Premise 1b is a little vague (ie: “things” and “them”). Perhaps instead this premise could be that both teaching and habit are not natural or inherent processes; they require some action. It might be beneficial to clarify in 2b that a person must choose to act virtuously and do so from a “firm and unchanging state” (Book 1, ch. 4, lines 33-35). Overall, I think you have pulled good arguments, like virtue is a state (not intrinsic), to support the conclusion but the premises can be a little better organized.
In Book X chapter 9 Aristotle explains that well thought out arguments and reasoning alone will not compel a person to act within the realm of virtue, therefore force is necessary. However he says that the fact that people do yield to force indicates that humans must “already have a character suitable for virtue”(168). This seems to me to be different than premise 3d. This seems to imply that there is an aspect of virtue in nature. My question for Aristotle would have to do with absolutes. Why in this instance is he so unconditional in his conclusion that virtue is not a result of nature?
ReplyDeleteI agree with point b under the second premise but I think you should develop that point a little. What does "virtue making choices" have to do with states or character, which was your original premise? What Aristotle is saying is that virtue is separate from having feelings and when we are indecisive we start having feelings of anger or fear. Why we have to make decisions is because without them we start having feelings, thus we are not praised or blamed based on feelings. We are praised or blamed insofar as we have virtues or vices. Further that is why we need to make decisions in order to have virtue. I just think that needed to be expanded upon.
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