7/18/2019 Reflection Paper of Hum on "virtue ethics"

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BRAC UNIVERSITY

Refection paper

on Virtue Ethics

Submitted by,Amina Farhad Rifa

Id-14104119

7/18/2019 Reflection Paper of Hum on "virtue ethics"

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Reflection paper on Virtue Ethics

The Nichomachean Ethics is a dense complex work of Aristotle in which he

elaborates the ideas of 'how should we live'. Here he discusses about some key terms such as

Eudaimonia, unctions of a human bein!, the virtues and the !olden mean. Eudaimonia means a

happy and flourished life, it means a successful life. "t is not for evaluatin! a certain moment#s

happiness, but to acknowled!e someone's whole life. "n a sense we cannot call someone's life

eudaimon until they are dead. Aristotle even considers that eudaimonia of one's life can be

affected to a limited extent by the events of his offsprin! after his death. Then he talks about the

functions of a human bein!, by which he means some characteristic functions of human bein!

that makes us distinctive and what we are. After that in the virtue part he describes how virtue is

different from morality. To him bein! virtuous doesn#t mean bein! moral. $ecause morality is

somethin! concerned for the interests of others. %n the contrary, virtue is completely a self&

centered matter. "t is about excellence of an individual#s character. astly, Aristotle introduces the

doctrine of (The !olden mean# which is an approach to make it easier to )ud!e an action whether

it is virtuous or not.

The theory of this chapter is (The !olden mean#. $asically it can be considered as the scale to

evaluate the excellence of one#s action. To make his philosophy understandable he provides

some examples where he says that virtue of an action lies between two vices, deficiency and

excess. The virtue of coura!e lies between the deficiency of coura!e or cowardice and the excess

of it or recklessness. *imilarly,wittiness lies between boorishness and buffoonery+ odesty

between the vices of shyness and shamelessness. *o it can be said that accordin! to his theory the

middle point amon! two vices is the virtuous one.

A common censure of the -octrine of the !olden mean is that the virtuous action is always the

moderate one. "n this theory Aristotle is encoura!in! the moderation in every act. However, it is

not possible to calculate the excellence all the time by this theory because sometimes the

moderate reaction seems inappropriate. or an example, if a man sees a robber lootin! someone

and come forward to help,it mi!ht be risky for him to fi!ht a!ainst the robber because he can be

hurt by the robber but if the man overlooks it, he will be nothin! but a coward. Accordin! to the

7/18/2019 Reflection Paper of Hum on "virtue ethics"

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!olden mean, here the virtuous action would be to advice the robber to let the victim !o which

sounds nuisance and the results can also be furious. *o, it is clear that !olden mean cannot

dictate the nature of any act.

rom my perspective " also believe that it has some limitations. As, in every situation the

moderate action cannot be the virtuous one and it is sometimes hard to maintain different virtues

at a time. or an example, loyalty and truthfulness are two virtues. "f my friend is takin! help of

cheat means in the examination and the examiner asks me whether he did or not, it would be my

duty to tell the truth to do the virtuous deed. $ut it would not be ri!ht to tell the truth if " want to

be a loyal friend. That is how the mean is not enou!h to )ud!e any action.