Intro to Ethics

• Happiness is the end of all our pursuits, an intrinsically desirable
• good for the sake of which we desire all other things. Aristotle seeks
• to give material content to this formal definition by identifying the
• "function" or characteristic action of human beings. A happy or
• flourishing human being is one who performs his or her function well.
• Now, the characteristic action of the human being is to exercise reason;
• human happiness, therefore, consists in the excellent, or virtuous,
• activity of the rational part of the soul, in both its theoretical and
• practical dimensions. Intellectual virtue is acquired by birth and by
• teaching, whereas moral virtue is acquired as a result of habit; that
• is, by performing virtuous acts until these becoming a kind of "second
• nature" to us. Virtuous acts strive to realize a mean of feeling an
• action between the extremes of excess and defect. The standard of virtue
• is given not by an abstract rule but by the example of the excellent
• person: A virtuous act is that act that the virtuous person would do in a
• given set of circumstances.

According to Aristotle, an activity of the soul exhibiting moral and intellectual virtue over the course of a complete life.

• Synonymous with 'excellence' in Aristotle; comes in
• two forms in humans: intellectual virtue, which is acquired by birth
• and teaching, and moral virtue, which comes about by habituation.

• That function the performance of which defines a
• being as the kind of being it is; humans' characteristic function is an
• activity of soul involving reason.

In Aristotle, the virtuous intermediate state between the two extremes of excess and defect in passions (feelings) and actions.