Aristotle 2

Aristotle 2

Aristotelian Virtue Ethics

• Eudaimonia: Aristotle believed in striving for ‘eudaimonia’ – a term often translated as ‘flourishing’ or ‘the good life’. This is the highest aim of human life.
• Role of Virtue: Virtue plays a central role in achieving eudaimonia. A virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do good. Ethics, for Aristotle, is not so much about following rules but becoming a ‘good person’.

Doctrine of the Mean

• Definition: The Doctrine of the Mean states that moral virtue is a mean between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency.
• Application: For example, courage is a virtue, but if taken to excess it would manifest as recklessness and if deficient it would be cowardice.

Aristotle’s Four Causes

• Material Cause: The material cause refers to what a thing is made of.
• Formal Cause: The formal cause refers to the shape or pattern that things embody.
• Efficient Cause: The efficient cause refers to the thing or agent that brings something about.
• Final Cause: The final cause refers to the end or goal that something is supposed to serve.

Potentiality and Actuality

• Potentiality: According to Aristotle, things have potential, meaning they have the ability to change or become something else.
• Actuality: This is when the potential of a thing is realised and it becomes fully what it was meant to be. Aristotle argued that actuality is more important than potentiality.

Aristotle’s Metaphysics

• Prime Mover: Aristotle postulated that there must be a first cause, or Prime Mover, that set everything in the universe in motion but is itself unmoved.
• Characteristics of the Prime Mover: The Prime Mover, Aristotle suggested, is eternal, perfect, and immaterial. It thinks upon itself and is the object of its own thoughts, being an intellect that contemplates only the perfect contemplation.