Aristotle and virtue ethics

[A] Intrinsic versus Instrumental Goods

Intrinsic Goods: things which are valued in and of themselves, for their own sake; or as ends in
themselves
Instrumental Goods: things which are valued as a means to some other end; for the sake of
something else; (e.g., money)
The value of an instrumental good is always determined by, and subordinate to, those final goods
at which they aim.

[B] Happiness

Happiness is Intrinsically Good

“Since every sort of knowledge and every undertaking seeks after some good, let us say
what it is that we say…the topmost of all achievable goods is. Pretty well most people
are agreed about what to call it: Both ordinary people and people of quality say
‘happiness,’ and suppose that living well and doing well are the same thing as being
happy…” (p. 340).

Happiness is desirable for itself, not desirable for the sake of something else; all other goods are
desirable for the sake of happiness (even those that are also good in themselves)

“Happiness seems most of all [to be good without qualification]; for this we do always
choose because of itself and never because f something else, while as for honor, pleasure,
intelligence, and every excellence, we do choose them because of themselves…but we
also choose them for the sake of happiness, supposing that we shall be happy through
them. But happiness no one chooses for the sake of these things, nor in general because
of something else” (p. 342).

Different Accounts of Happiness

Even though everyone agrees that happiness is the best of all things that are good, there is
disagreement about what kind of life is the happiest (e.g. the life of pleasure, the life of honor,
the life of contemplation, the money-making life).

But how do we decide what kind of happiness is really the best? Aristotle suggests that if we can
determine the function of a human being, we can say what it means for a human being to live
well. For example, an eye is a good eye when it sees well, and a musician is a good musician
when she plays well. So, goodness for any kind of thing consists in filling the function of that
thing. And if we can identify a function for human beings in general, then we can settle what it
means to talk about “the good” for human beings
So, what is the function of human beings? Or, to put the point a different way, what aspect of
human life is unique to human beings?
Being alive? We share this with other animals and with plants, so the life related to
biological function (nutrition and growth) is not the true function of human beings.
Perception? Again, we share this with other animals.
Having reason (in the sense of having the ability to reason) OR
Having reason (and using it) – This is the part of human function that is unique to human
being and is the highest human function.

So, “the function of a human being is activity of soul in accordance with reason” (p. 343). And
the good for human beings lies in fulfilling this function. This introduces the idea of excellence,
or virtue.

[C] Virtue

“Happiness is some activity of the soul in accordance with complete excellence” (p. 343).

We said above that there is a passive faculty of reason and an active faculty of reason. Aristotle
suggests that the latter has reason “in the proper sense and in itself” and the former “is capable of
listening as if to one’s father.” Similarly, the former is associated with intellectual virtues (e.g.
good sense, wisdom, intellectual accomplishments) and the latter with excellence of character
(e.g. open-handedness, moderation). So, there are two kinds of excellence: intellectual
excellence and excellence of character. Intellectual excellence develops as a result of teaching,
whereas excellence of character develops as a result of acquiring good habits.

Aristotle then notes that excellence of character is not natural in us, but is also not contrary to our
nature. Rather it is learned through practice. “…people become builders by building, and
cithara players by playing the cithara. So too, then, we become just by doing just things,
moderate by doing moderate things, and courageous by doing courageous things.” (p. 344).
Excellence, then, is a matter of acquiring the right habits, through practice: “it is through acting
as we do in our dealings with human beings that some of us become just and others unjust, and
through acting as we do in frightening situations, and through becoming habituated to fearing or
being confident, that some of us become courageous and some of us cowardly” (p. 345).

One possible objection to Aristotle’s view that we become just by acting justly is that if we are
acting justly then we are already just (not simply becoming just). Aristotle, however, compares
this to exercising a practical skill: imagine learning to play the piano for the first time, and
copying a couple of notes played by your teacher. You are behaving musically, but you do not
(yet) have musical skill. It’s only when you learn how to play in accordance with your own
expert knowledge of music that you can truly be said to be musical. Similarly, someone has a
virtue and acts in accordance with that virtue only “first if he does them knowingly, secondly if
he decides to do them and decides to do them for themselves, and thirdly if he does them from a
firm and unchanging disposition” (p. 345). We have to have virtuous habits (the consistent
knowledge of how to act virtuously), and to act on them, in order to be truly virtuous.
[E] The Doctrine of the Mean

“Excellence, then, is a disposition issuing in decisions, depending on intermediacy of the kind

relative to us, this being determined by rational prescription and in the way in which the wise
person would determine it. And it is intermediacy [because it lies] between two bad states, one
involving excess, the other involving deficiency.”

For Aristotle, virtue is a “happy medium” between two extremes. For example, courage is
midway between cowardice and foolhardiness, and generosity is midway between stinginess and
being spendthrift.

BUT this mean is also relative to us. Just as an athlete needs more food than a person who works
at a desk job, a soldier needs more courage than a philosophy professor. So, what would be too
far to the cowardly end of the spectrum for the soldier, might be the right amount of courage for
a philosopher. Excellence relies on knowing what is appropriate for you.

Vice occurs when someone acts in accordance with one extreme or the other. Foolhardiness is a
vice because it is the excess of courage, and cowardliness is also a vice because it is a deficiency
of courage.

But, Aristotle also warns that some actions or attitudes don’t have an appropriate mean – they are
always bad. These include theft and murder (for actions) and malice and shamelessness (for
dispositions or attitudes).

Study Questions

1. What is the difference between instrumental and intrinsic value. Give an example of
something with each kind of value.
2. Why does Aristotle say that happiness is the highest good?
3. Why does Aristotle say that the function of human beings can’t simply be being alive?
4. Why does Aristotle say that the rational part of the soul has two parts?
5. How does Aristotle define happiness?
6. What is the difference between intellectual excellence and excellence of character?
7. Why does Aristotle say that virtue is neither natural to us nor contrary to our nature?
8. According to Aristotle, how do we become just?
9. What does Aristotle mean by saying that excellence involves a mean between two extremes?
Give an example to illustrate this point.