Patience

Patience

Han Ho

John Boyer

Ethics (PHIL 2314 E)

April 2, 2016

Aristotle believes that happiness is the highest goal of every individual in order to have a fulfilled life. He claims, "the highest good attainable by action, […] for both the common run of people and cultivated men call it happiness, and understand by 'being happy' the same as 'living well' and 'doing well.'" Then, in order to live well, individuals should live virtuous lives. One virtue, patience, is necessary for living a good life.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle divides virtue into two areas, intellectual virtue and moral virtue. Intellectual virtue is acquired by instruction and relates to internal thinking. For instance, a child is taught honesty is admirable and lying is frowned upon. So, when he grows up, he understands that he needs to be honest to become virtuous. Moral virtue, on the contrary, is developed by habit and practice. Therefore, practicing acceptable behaviors helps people become virtuous. Aristotle states that, “… virtues, … [are] acquire[d] by first having put them into action, and the same is also true of the art.” If a child is taught to tell the truth every day, he will be honest to others. Or, practicing saying thank you to the people who help us will establish gratitude.

Aristotle, then, defines virtue as the moderation of each person's characteristics relating to emotion. He gives an example regarding anger: "our condition in relation to anger is bad, if our anger is too violent or not violent enough, but if it is moderate, our condition is good." Moreover, every virtue relates to a specific area of our lives. Each virtue has a different focus. For example, generosity is the virtue which shows respect to spending money, while courage shows concern to facing danger.

Aristotle also considers that moral virtue is the median between excess and deficiency. He states, "virtue is a mean in the sense that it aims at the median." Every virtue should be developed as a...