ARISTOTLE:  CHARACTER AS THE BASIS FOR ETHICS

“To do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for every one nor is it easy;wherefore goodness is both rare and laudable and noble.”(Aristotle, Ethics II.9))

For a brilliant diagrammatic guide through the whole of Nicomachean Ethics I recommend this site, worth every moment you run with it – Aristotle could change your life! :http://www.uri.edu/personal/szunjic/philos/nicom.htm

Introduction

This outstanding article is by Richard Jacobs of Villanova State University.  For a brilliant introductory lecture on the meaning of practical wisdom in virtue ethics by Professor Schwartz of the University of Colorado go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA-zdh_bQBo

For Aristotle, the good life does not consist in isolated good actions as much as good character building a flourishing life (eudaimonia = happiness or flourishing).

• The only way human beings can ensure that their acts will be good is for those acts to become habits (in Greek, ethos; in Latin, mores; in English, customs) that guide human conduct. A habit is a disposition of character to act in an appropriate way according to the circumstances.

• A habit is something human beings acquire (in Latin, habere, “to have”) as they use the power of intellect to judge what one ought to do, as human beings act with knowledge to will something (in Latin, con-sciere, “to act with knowledge,” “conscience” in English).

• Aristotle’s teacher, Plato, believed that knowledge is discovered in virtue (in Greek, arete meaning skill or excellence; in Latin, virtus) while ignorance is vice. Human beings discover the happy life as they act according to the dictates of knowledge. Hence, the saying “think before you act.”

• Building upon this tradition, Aristotle distinguished three intellectual virtues that bring happiness:

Understanding (nous): the habit of first principles, which involves searching out the primary self-evident truths that lie at the root of all knowledge
Science (episteme): the habit of drawing conclusions by demonstration from first principles, of knowing particular scientific findings and establishing the “laws” of science.
Wisdom (sophia): the habit of knowing things in their highest causes, of ordering all principles and conclusions into one vast body of truth (metaphysics).

Aristotle also distinguished two practical virtues human beings use to search for happiness:

Art (techne): the habit of knowing how to make tangible things, how to produce an object; for example, making a car, a table, or a painting or sculpture.
Prudence or practical wisdom(phronesis): the habit of knowing how to do things, how to direct your life, how to live. Phronesis is the skill we need to develop to be moral.

• Because human beings have intellectual powers that animals don’t, human beings are obliged by their nature to train their abilities to realise their fullest potential: to experience happiness (flourishing) through virtue.

• No human being is born virtuous and no human being comes to virtue by a sudden change (like a religious conversion) but only by long and arduous training that turns the idea of virtue (knowledge) into virtuous action. In this way, virtue is the result of discipline coming from the power of the intellect as an individual makes decisions, and exercises discipline in acquiring the habits of virtue.

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The Goal of flourishing

For Aristotle, the fulfillment of desire is happiness, an activity of the mind, achieved as we engage in virtuous conduct. But happiness to Aristotle has particular meaning.   The Greek word for happiness, eudaimonia is better translated “flourishing”.  It implies a process of personal growth and development gained over a lifetime of following the virtues and using practical wisdom (phronesis) to apply them.

Happiness is not experienced as sensual pleasure but in intellectual delight where the human being consciously wills to act in accord with the dictates of virtue.  To Aristotle the highest good is contemplation, reflecting the Greek emphasis on knowledge and wisdom. As virtue becomes a habit,  the human being achieves greater perfection as a rational animal. The older we get, the wiser we become, and Aristotle believed we are happiest a minute before we die, because the process of personal growth is at its peak in old age.

Aristotle developed these ideas by building upon and extending those of his teacher, Plato, who argued that the good life is one that is spent in loving and pursuing truth as well as ruling myself and others by ordering society according to the dictates of truth. In practice, moral conduct requires us to overcome ignorance and become wise (for example, as those who leave the cave recognise). Remember the sequence we started with:

knowledge + skill acquired through practice = virtue.

In contrast, unethical behaviour (wrong) results from our failure to discover or be taught knowledge of the good, so that we overcome ignorance.  Once we know what is good we can then practise it in our own experience, make mistakes, learn from these mistakes, and so grow in the habit of excellence (Greek arete means skill, virtue or excellence).

An analogy might help to explain how virtue to Aristotle is a skill.  Wayne Rooney is a skilful (virtuous in this sense) footballer.  When he was young he watched other skilful footballers and was trained by a good coach.  So by emulating (copying) his hero Bobby Charlton and by the skilful coaching of Sir Alec Ferguson he developed and acquired the skills of a striker.  He had to practise hard: day after day he fired shots at goal and practised the tricks of beating an opponent.  Gradually he made fewer and fewer mistakes, and became sharper and wiser.  So by knowledge and by practice Wayne Rooney developed the virtues he needed to flourish.

Aristotle argues it’s exactly the same in the moral life.  We gain knowledge of goodness by copying our heroes (let’s imagine our heroes are moral people, unfortunately this isn’t always the case in a celebrity obsessed age!).  We are taught by good teachers and parents.  Then we practise making moral decisions according to virtues like love, generosity, courage (or whatever our society thinks is “good” or “desirable”).  The skill we acquire is phronesis or practical wisdom, a skill of the mind or intellect which produces right judgement in awkward situations.  We use this judgement or prudence to control our passions and appetites (like anger or jealousy) and so grow into a wise and stable character.

For Aristotle virtue and a virtuous character help us to grow personally and socially: to deal with the important matters of people in society (in Greek, polis or city, from which we get the word “politics”).  My aim is to flourish and grow, and society can also flourish and grow as we agree together what the virtues are, and how to teach them.  Aristotle’s ethics always looks two ways: at me as an individual, and at the city-state or polis.

Virtue is the key

When people ask about what it means to be good, “…we are inquiring not in order to know what virtue is,” Aristotle argues in Nichomachean  Ethics, “but in order to become good….human beings do not fall under any art (technique or skill) or precept ( theory) but the agents themselves must in each case consider what is appropriate to the occasion (practice).” (Ethics II.2, p. 183).

For Aristotle, ethics is not about following a rulebook, like a very officious bureaucrat. Instead  it’s a struggle to integrate theoretical ideas about what is truly good with technical skills that have proved by experience to be capable of achieving the good. The ethical thing is the practical thing and is comprised of three elements.

The first element of ethical practice is knowledge. For Aristotle, knowledge includes data, both factual (what the case truly is) as well as theoretical (what the good truly is). This knowledge in turn provides a framework for thinking over the most appropriate technique(s) by which the good can be attained.

The second element: possession of the skills (or techniques) necessary to achieve the desired good. To act ethically Aristotle maintains that individuals must be experienced and proficient in those skills associated with best practice. As an individual hones these skills – perhaps by engaging a mentor to work through typical problems associated with failure and to develop the skills attributed with success, muddling through training exercises, or simply by immersing myself in my responsibilities – I develop the techniques of best practice or excellence. Well-honed techniques are like arrows in a hunter’s quiver: they comprise an arsenal of proven and reliable skills that can be called upon to solve problems as they arise in practice.

The third element is deliberation. It is not enough for an individual to know what is good or to have at our disposal  proven techniques. To act ethically we must consider those ideas concerning the good and then freely select a course of action from among equally plausible alternatives for which we bear personal responsibility. What to an outsider may appear to be a routine decision-making process is, for the expert, a result of intense practice and discipline that culminates in a sustained focus upon virtue and its practical application in choices we make.

What makes something good

For Aristotle an individual’s choice is ethical when it integrates a rational principal with a practical technique through concentrated thought. And, when an individual makes choices, the course of action brings about the greatest amount of good for which the individual bears personal responsibility (Ethics III.3, p. 202).

In contrast to these three behaviours, doing good is revealed through my character as I select a course of action that proceeds “from a firm and unchangeable character” (Ethics II.4, p. 187). When, for example, a person is confronted by a dilemma and makes a decision about “what is appropriate to the occasion,” this individual’s ethical practice comes from a virtuous character formed by the results of thinking about all the decisions I’ve made before. This is practical wisdom (phronesis). It isn’t so much what I do that is crucial for ethical decision making, as it is why I do what I do and the quality of character revealed by the decisions I take, sometimes in quite confusing or complex circumstances. The ethical person, then, is an individual who not only possesses wisdom theoretically but also expresses it in very practical ways.

Aristotle’s “Golden Mean”

What, then, is the right thing to do?

Aristotle’s teacher, Plato, sought to direct the power of the human will toward seternal truths, Aristotle, on the other hand, argued that decisions about the right thing to do are a practical matter, a choice I make by applying seven  possible excessive and defective virtues, including courage, generosity, magnificence, pride, anger, truth, and indignation. These are the virtues manifest in the character of those who makes ethical decisions, and they need to be exercised in a balanced way.

Take the virtue of courage (Ethics II.7, p. 191), for example.

People need to be taught about courage as well as how to act courageously, for the good life depends upon an individual who stands for something. Aristotle reminds his readers that “courage” is located somewhere along a continuum of possible expressions of courage. Depending on the circumstances, this mean is located somewhere between a defect, fear, and an excess, rashness.

For Aristotle, it is not enough to require that people act courageously, as if there is one and only one way to express this virtue in practice. In some cases, it would be important that a person experiences fear and treads carefully, allowing for fear to inform our deliberations about what we ought to do. The opposite situation might also be the case. A person might be over-fearful of something, so we become paralysed in our ability to act courageously. While some might think that fear is an impediment to courageous action, Aristotle points out that fear can (and perhaps should) influence our deliberations. But extreme fear is a defect: it paralyses our choice.

At the opposite end of the continuum is another aspect of courage, “confidence.” Confident people act with a sense of calm assurance that what they are doing is the right thing to do. Contrast these people with those who exude supreme confidence, acting with complete assurance when such self-confidence is unwarranted. Like its opposite, fear, confidence can influence positively or negatively a person’s deliberations about what they ought to do in a particular situation. While some might argue that confidence is  required for courageous action, Aristotle argues that over-confidence breeds rashness and lack of judgement.

So Aristotle reminds his readers that the virtue of courage is a very practical matter, one that can be expressed in at least four different ways (rashness, confidence, courage, fear): the most appropriate expression results from careful consideration. Put another way, to be courageous results from a careful calculation about what good is being sought in a troubling dilemma and the course of action that best resolves the conflicting values revealed by that dilemma. The virtuous thing to do is not to act courageously as if there exists only one courageous way to act. Rather, acting courageously requires balancing the often conflicting  aspects of courage -fear and confidence- enacting the most appropriate mean (or middle position).

As Aristotle puts it in his own words:

“Virtue is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean – the mean relative to us,  determined by a rational principle, and by that principle by which the individual with practical wisdom would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on deficiency; and again it is a mean because the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate. Hence in respect of its substance and the definition which states its essence virtue is a mean”. (Aristotle, Ethics II.6, p.190)

The key virtues

Aristotle maintains that six other virtues are equally bounded by the two vices, one form revealing an excess in  character and the other a defect.

• Generosity can degenerate into prodigality (wastefulness) or meanness (Ethics II.7, pp. 191-192; IV.1, pp. 210-215);
• Magnificence (desire to display the best) can be polluted by vulgarity or niggardliness (Ethics IV.2, pp. 215-218);
• Pride is bounded by vanity and humility (Ethics II.7, p. 192; IV.3, pp. 218-223);
• Anger of a right sort lies between bad temper and indifference (Ethics II.7, p. 192; IV.1, pp. 210-214);
• Truth is destroyed through an excess, boasting, or a defect, modesty (Ethics II.7, p. 193; IV.7, p. 193);
• Indignation lies somewhere between envy and spite (Ethics II.7, pp. 193-194).Each continuum displays the extreme expressions of a particular virtue, whereby the excesses and defects stand in opposition not only to each other but also to the mean. These seven virtues and their possible combinations lie along an axis (deficiency- mean – excess) –as they are enacted by people and lived out by a virtuous character.

Aristotle reminds his readers that it is no easy task to find the mean.

“But to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for every one nor is it easy; wherefore goodness is both rare and laudable and noble” (Aristotle, Ethics II.9, p. 195).

Aristotle wants ethical practice to influence and shape events in the real world in order that real people may experience true happiness (eudaimonia). To be truly happy, therefore, we must act virtuously, that is, to experience the virtues “at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right people, with the right motive, and in the right way” (Ethics II.6, p. 190).

Ethical practice is an exercise of the intellect and will as people apply ideas about what virtue requires to the skills of best practice, and direct these efforts towards achieving virtue in specific circumstances. By engaging in ethical practice, human beings express their excellence (remember the Greek word for virtue, arete, can mean both virtue and excellence) as rational creatures (Ethics I.13, p. 179).

Aristotle’s discussion about ethical practice veers away from abstract theories concerning the good.  The skills that enable the good to flourish are very clear. By emphasising practical wisdom (phronesis) – the skill of identifying the golden mean – he challenges  us to consider how to tread this middle path between the vice of deficiency and that of excess.

This has an important implication that ethics can be taught and learnt.  The intellectual virtues (for example, pure ideas like courage) are not innate to human creatures; instead, the virtues owe their birth and growth to good teaching. Also, acting virtuously is not in-born (in contrast to Aquinas’ view that synderesis, or the desire to do good and avoid evil, is innate); instead good teachers enable students to learn how to act virtuously and to delight in doing good. For these reasons, educating people in ethical practice requires both experience and time (Ethics II.1, p. 181).

In summary, we achieve the virtues through the three Es:

• Emulation as we copy our heroes and heroines.
• Education as we listen to our teachers.
• Experience as we learn the skill of phronesis or practical wisdom.

Aristotle appears to be more interested in  practical matters and, in particular, how ethical decision making is a matter of character, and how my character influences other human beings to become ethical, and so contribute to the building of the city-state.  Ethics has always a personal and social dimension.

The utlimate goal is that I, and society generally, should flourish, as a tree flourishes that has strong roots grounded in good soil.

Exercise:  what do Aristotle’s seven virtues tell us about the nature of virtue ethics (courage, generosity, magnificence, pride, anger, indignation and truth)? Would your list be the same?  If not, which virtue(s) would you change? Are the virtues relativistic?

References
Aristotle. (1958). Nichomachean Ethics (W. D. Ross, Trans.) In J. D. Kaplan (Ed.), The pocket Aristotle (pp. 158-274). New York: Washington Square Press

Aristotle Ethics (available as an e-book)

Four Key Quotes to learn

• “The soul must first be conditioned by good habits, as land must be cultivated by good seed”. Aristotle

• “The good for human beings is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue (arete)”. Aristotle

• “Virtue is concerned with emotions and actions, and here excess is an error and deficiency a fault, whereas the mean is commendable..determined as the prudent man (phronimos) would determine it”. Aristotle

• “One swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.” Aristotle

To think about:

“We state the function of man to be a certain kind of life, and this to be an activity or actions of the soul implying a rational principle, and the function of a good man to be the good and noble performance of these, and any action is well performed when it is performed in accordance with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there is more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete. But we must add ‘in a complete life.’ For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy.” Aristotle NE Book I ch 6