Couple of days back, I was hearing an audio lecture on the ‘The Ethics of Aristotle’ by Father Joseph Koterski, Fordham University . It has been a long time, since I wrote a blog post and thought of sharing a few points from that lecture.
Aristotle is a famous Greek philosopher of common sense from the lineage of Socrates and Plato. His work, ‘Nichomachean Ethics’ gives a historical and philosophical account on the subject of ethics. Being a biologist himself, he approaches the subject of ethics with a ‘biological model’ in which species are characterized into ‘genus’ by finding common characteristics among them. In the same way, he looks at common elements in the lives of culturally diverse individuals and organizations that led to their excellence.
Purpose of Human Life
He mentions that the purpose of human life is HAPPINESS. All people act in some way or other towards making themselves happy. He argues that what constitutes happiness is where people disagree. He considers happiness as an end in itself, rather than a means to an end. Human beings are blessed with RATIONALITY that provides them with a sense of ‘Knowing’ and ‘Choosing’. By ‘Knowing’, he refers to cerebral functions such as articulation and calculation but also practical intelligence such as arts, carpentry etc. By ‘Choosing’, he refers to choosing from the gamut of our passions, desires and emotions to which we are attracted or repelled. Though, long life of reasonable health, material prosperity, friends etc., are essential for human happiness; Aristotle claims that only in the proper development and use of of rationality, human beings will be able to find fulfillment and happiness. Dalai Lama in his book ‘The Art of Happiness‘ also mentions that ‘Happiness’ is the ultimate goal of our human life. It needs to be distinguished from human pleasure and pain through rationality.
Moral Excellence
Aristotle refers to ‘Virtue’ (aristeia in Greek) as ‘Excellence’ in any human person. ‘Moral Virtue’ as the state of character in which a person has the habit of choosing the mean between the extremes of excess and deficiency with respect to some action, desire or emotion. By ‘mean’ (kind of golden mean), he refers to the peak of excellence that is ‘just right’, and not ‘average’. Socrates viewed ‘Virtue’ as a ‘matter of knowing’; a person who really knows what is right will do right. In contrast, Aristotle argues that ‘knowing is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for moral virtue’. According to him, virtue is attained by right reasoning or making right choices consistently, until it becomes a habit i.e., Moral virtue can be acquired as a habit by repetition, until it becomes ’second nature’ to us and thus makes life easier. Aristotle combines an element of knowledge and an element of control in his concept of ‘virtue’. Right reasoning includes taking into account relevant aspects of situation, a choice that an impartial but knowledgeable observer would come to. He also holds that certain things like murder, adultery are inherently evil in themselves, not just by reason of some excess or defect.
Courage and Moderation
Aristotle’s definition of COURAGE, is the virtue of choosing the golden mean between recklessness and cowardice when we are confronted by danger that really merit some fear. In similar fashion, he mentions TEMPERANCE as the habit of choosing between insensibility and self-indulgence. Aristotle also argues that we should attach praise or blame only to actions that are done voluntarily. Responsibility for the actions could be eliminated or reduced if the following conditions are met
- If the action is done under compulsion (physical force, threats, addictions etc)
- If the actor didn’t have sufficient knowledge about the circumstances – sometimes by one’s own fault or circumstance which are totally out of his/her control
Social Virtues
Money
Liberality and Magnificence are the two virtues that he discusses with the subject of money. According to Aristotle, LIBERALITY stands between prodigality and meanness. MAGNIFICENCE stands between vulgarity and niggardliness. In the days of Aristotle, wealthy people demonstrated magnificence in the form of sponsoring theatrical productions and Athenian festivals (putting large sums of money to work for public service).
Honor
PRIDE stands between vanity and humility. He does not consider pride as arrogance, for example, in the saying ‘Pride comes before the fall’. It is the true love for the things that went fine in one’s life and humility to accept things that gone wrong.
Industriousness
The golden mean between too much and too little ambition
Good Temper
Virtue concerned with the emotion of anger. Anger involves the mean between excessive irritability and wimpiness (to be liked at whatever cost). According to Aristotle, passion is not something we choose, but something to which we must choose to react. He mentions that we must learn to recognize the patterns of anger and respond appropriately. Anger could proper beneficial, for instance, a spirited response against an injustice. Tamil Poet Bharathiyar mentions in his poems “Sirumai kandu ponguvai va va …” (get angry at the sight of injustice) , “Rowthiram Pazhaghu” (practice anger for right things). In circumstances of injustice, he considers wimpiness as a vice.
Friendliness
It is the peak of excellence between flattery and surliness.
Truthfulness
The mean between boastfulness and false modesty. It means a habitual willingness to keep an open mind and maintain critical objectivity.
Wisdom
The mean between buffoonery and boorishness.
Shame
Healthy sense of shame and modesty should be developed between shamelessness and bashfulness.
Justice
He throws light on the crucial distinction between law and justice. Justice in the sense of fairness and equity need not be codified into law. Aristotle calls “natural justice” into natural law theory, the notion of a higher law by which one may judge the justice or injustice of any humanly crafted law.
He categorizes justice in the sense of fairness or equitable as
Corrective justice: Justice that involves the restoration of equality between parties by compensating the wronged or injured party. It looks at things objectively without regard to the status of the parties and concentrating on the amounts in question to be made equal.
Distributive justice: Justice that takes personal status of the parties into account. Things are expressed in terms of ratios rather than equal amounts. For instance, people earning salaries above certain amount falls in a particular tax bracket.
Like other virtues, Aristotle considers justice also as a habit of choosing the mean. For instance, giving the right amount of pay for the work done; taking into account the knowledge and skills required, the risk involved, time and money spent etc. Also giving the right amount of work for the pay to be earned.
Regarding equity, he mentions that law makers should consider the general situation while creating a law and cannot expect to envision all possible exceptions that may arise. However, he mentions that appropriate amendments have to be made to correct the law when those exceptions arise.
Hard cases make bad laws
Intellectual virtues
Aristotle believes that the goal of TRUTH is to conform the mind to the way things are. He believes that one must first know the way the world works to be able to improve it with practical uses of the intellect. He implies that we must know the truth about ourselves to be able to develop appropriate skills and virtues.
Aristotle identifies five major intellectual virtues:
Science
The habit of demonstrative knowledge of what is necessary and eternal to show how effects are linked to their causes. He proceeds from first principles, through the chains of reasoning typical of a discipline, to the conclusions appropriate for that discipline. For example,
- All men are mortal
- Socrates is a man
- So, Socrates is a mortal
Art (techne)
The whole range of technological knowledge that shapes the mind of the person who possess it. For example, the knowledge of a plumber or a mechanic whose competence is far-reaching rather articulative.
Prudence
Prudence or practical wisdom relates to the action of deliberating for the right amount of time with regards to an action or emotion.
Intuition of first principles (nous)
Intuition of first principles means insight, is the habit of grasping the principles from which demonstrations will be able to proceed. For ethics, the first principle is identify the good from the evil. Then pursue good and avoid evil at all cost.
Wisdom (sophia)
The habit of uniting the intuition of first principles with science.
Aristotle argues that intellectual component is necessary for any of the moral virtues to take place, and a moral component is essential for prudence to occur.
Struggling to do right
Aristotle distinguishes four kind of people
Altruistic: People who are god-like or who have already developed a preternatural affinity of choosing good virtues.
Bestial: People are adept at choosing vice all the time. They do it with ease and with great regularity.
Continent: People who know the right from the wrong and struggles a lot to choose the right one. Ultimately, they settle for the right things. The continent person is not altruistic but weak-willed in nature.
Incontinent: People who know the right from the wrong and struggles a lot to choose the right one. Ultimately, they settle for the wrong things. The incontinent person is not bestial but weak-willed in nature.
Morally weak people’s action is not just the result of intellectual mistake but involves the influence of the interplay of their passions and desires. Aristotle strongly urges that we develop the habit of deliberation to facilitate the control of our passions and desires. Slowly, we will be consistent in making wise choices.
Friendship
Aristotle distinguishes three different types of friendship
Friendships of pleasure
People simple enjoy one another’s company that gives them a sense of one’s own pleasure. This sort of friendship tend to fade and break off when what gave them pleasure cease to exist.
Friendships of utility
Friendship that is grounded on mutual advantage for one another. They may not enjoy each others company but appear to be nice with each other. Once the usefulness vanishes the friendship also vanishes.
Friendships of excellence
Friendship of excellence (also called Friendship of Character) depends on virtuous people wishing well for one another. They wish good for their friend’s own sake and not for their own pleasure and utility alone. This could occur only when atleast one person in a relationship has already developed that virtue, that still holds the relationship even when the other person draws out. This requires considerable time and familiarity. Such friendships are rather small.
Also there can be relative equality or inequality between the parties involved. Friendship can exist between a parent and child, spouses, rulers and subjects. Virtuous people are in general more open to share than vicious people. He also mentions that loving is more of an essence of the friendship than being loved.
Friendship is based on self-love and on a willingness to look out for the good of others. If one’s love is excessive he looks out for less in others and vice-versa. Much of the pleasantness in friendship consists in holding a shared viewpoint on many topics.
Aristotle’s vision of friendship contains a strong sense of nobility, that at times requires us to do painful things when they are right even though it hurts friendship. We have to transcend boundaries of pleasure to do things which are equitable, even at the cost of considerable sacrifice of friendship. Friends should be able to face hard decisions with honor and justice.
Pleasure
Right from beginning, Aristotle marks that Happiness is the ultimate goal of human life. Even though pleasure is necessary but not sufficient for attaining virtue. He takes a moderate approach and considers PLEASURES that assist the development and proper use of our rationality should be regarded as right and good whilst those that impair or frustrate our rationality should be regarded as suspect.
Conclusion
Nicomachean ethics is basically set in a political context of his period. He claims that happiness consists in a life of virtuous activity rather than a life dedicated to personal amusement. This is achieved through deliberate action through rationality and consistent practice until it becomes habitual so we do things with pleasure and great ease. Finally, he claims that the happiness of the contemplative life is superior to the kind of happiness possible in active life. For a scholar like Aristotle, having leisure for study and using his mind for a great cause provides him supreme goodness and happiness.
. Believe me, shifting the apartment every now and then is really not a good idea. Since, I keep things to a minimum, I didn’t have lot of stuff to move around. I have been without broadband connection for few days and since I got one now, it is a good time to update my blog.
). I completed one year at Schlumberger, working as a Software Engineer in Seabed team, developing database solutions for Oil & Gas Industry. In this one year, I got an opportunity to meet people from different technical background, level of work experience and nationalities through various training programs conducted all over the year. To a certain extent, I found the training programs helpful in shaping my professional career. I got an introduction to the Oil and Gas industry and a little bit of petroleum geology.
Then we went to the nearby 
