PHL 301 1st Edition Lecture 15Outline of Last Lecture I.Virtues of feelingII.Virtues toward family III.Virtues toward selfIV.Introduction to AristotleOutline of Current LectureI.HappinessII.VirtueIII.Weakness of willCurrent LectureAristotle comes to the conclusion that the only intrinsic good is happiness. Everything else can be instrumental, but happiness is always sought for its own sake. Happiness is living well and flourishing, which requires prosperity, luck, love, and friends, according to Aristotle. Hethen describes what it means to live well. Just as a good knife cuts well, a good eye sees well, and a good teacher is one who teaches well, we must fulfill our function well to live well. These functions stem from what is special about the object. For example, a knife is made to cut, so, by definition, a good knife cuts well. Aristotle then asks, what is special about people? What separates us from animals?The answer is that people can reason. We think about the long-term and act according to rational plans. Therefore, a good person is one who acts well. Virtue can then be defined as excellence. Moral virtue, hence, is excellence in activity, while rational virtue is excellence in rationality. Moral virtue cannot be taught because it isn’t just knowing, but doing the thing that one knows to be right. Intellectual virtue, however, can be taught. Following this argument, weakness of will becomes very easy to explain. One may have intellectual virtue but not moral virtue. In other words, he or she might know the right thing to do but not necessarily do it. This leads to the question of how to develop willpower. One might ask, “How do I become good?” The answer lies in developing habits. We become good by doing good things, which we must then practice. One way to do this is to imitate people who are good, and, eventually, their habits will become your habits. However, to do this, we must be able to draw distinctions between right and wrong. This is known as practical wisdom. Moral These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.virtues are means between extremes, and practical wisdom allows us to find the mean. For example, generosity is a virtue. If you have too little generosity, you are stingy. However, if you have too much generosity, you probably give away more freely than you should. In this way, possessing the virtue generosity means to find a mean between stingy and
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