Aristotle's Virtue Ethics
In this essay, with all the information I have gathered from the readings and lectures, I will be discussing an essential concept of Aristotle’s virtue ethics; his “doctrine of the mean”. I will provide a detailed explanation of Aristotle’s mean, how it is meant to be applied when making decisions, provide arguments from various sources that agree with the main concept of the “doctrine of the mean” and with all of the information gathered, I will prove that this doctrine is extremely useful to people when it comes to making moral decisions in life. To begin with, Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean is an essential concept of his virtue ethics; which is his theory on how we (humans) should go about life making moral and ethical decisions. If we
…show more content…
212) this clearly illustrates Aristotle’s main theory that people can be virtuous and make perfectly moral decisions in the world today, only if they are able to find that mean point between either doing too much (excess) or to do too little (deficiency), and that is where he believes the true virtue in our decisions lie. Also, Aristotle is not the only person in a position of high esteem to have a similar idea, take for example the Bible; a historical book that dates back to over a thousand years in history and not only covers historical events but also provides a guide on morality and “goodness”, which is evident in a lot of its laws like the ten commandments, the Golden rule, etc. Also, as Christian and a person who has been part of the Church for the majority of my life, after fully analyzing the above explanation of the “doctrine of the mean” something that immediately came to my head was a verse from the Bible saying “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8 NKJV) and in the first part this verse, it is referring to how “we” as people should refrain from overindulgence—and in this specific case it is—in wine/alcohol, because it is not seen as a problem for one to have few drinks or more of wine, but when one starts to overindulge themselves in it; that in turn leads to the person being in a state of stupor, where they are not in complete control of their actions. This will be a situation where the devil—seen as everything evil and immoral in life—will take advantage of one and lead you commit an immoral act. That is why much like the “doctrine of the mean”, this Bible verse is using the state of one being “sober” as its mean in this situation, which
212) this clearly illustrates Aristotle’s main theory that people can be virtuous and make perfectly moral decisions in the world today, only if they are able to find that mean point between either doing too much (excess) or to do too little (deficiency), and that is where he believes the true virtue in our decisions lie. Also, Aristotle is not the only person in a position of high esteem to have a similar idea, take for example the Bible; a historical book that dates back to over a thousand years in history and not only covers historical events but also provides a guide on morality and “goodness”, which is evident in a lot of its laws like the ten commandments, the Golden rule, etc. Also, as Christian and a person who has been part of the Church for the majority of my life, after fully analyzing the above explanation of the “doctrine of the mean” something that immediately came to my head was a verse from the Bible saying “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8 NKJV) and in the first part this verse, it is referring to how “we” as people should refrain from overindulgence—and in this specific case it is—in wine/alcohol, because it is not seen as a problem for one to have few drinks or more of wine, but when one starts to overindulge themselves in it; that in turn leads to the person being in a state of stupor, where they are not in complete control of their actions. This will be a situation where the devil—seen as everything evil and immoral in life—will take advantage of one and lead you commit an immoral act. That is why much like the “doctrine of the mean”, this Bible verse is using the state of one being “sober” as its mean in this situation, which