• In Aristotle’s ethics (arete) is “excellences of various types.”

• Character is a combination of virtues

Plato

• Main virtues and their association with the different classes

• Temperance is associated with the farmers and craftsmen. It is determined by the animal appetites, to whom no special virtue was assigned;

• Fortitude and courage are the virtues for the warriors and corresponds to spirit;

• Prudence or wisdom is mainly for the rulers and corresponds to reason. 

• Justice is for all and defines relationship between them

• Three classes compose an ideal state

Human Goal in Life

• Happiness and balance

• To be happy and act in a good way we should keep our soul in peace and balance

• All the three elements should be in balance and governed by ratio

• People and their types and position in society can be defined according to dominance of one or another element

Aristotle

Ethics is not a theoretical discipline: it is important in order to reach what is good in our lives

• Ethics is about cultivating good character

• Good Character makes or allows person to act rightly and morally

• Focus on “Ethics of Being” (virtues) rather than “Ethics of doing”, but there is unity of being and doing since if you are a good person, you do good things

• How to cultivate good character? We do that by realization of appropriate ends/goals (telos)

• Happiness is a goal of human life and the meaning of life

A person is happy when he/she can accomplish his/her proper task: for example, the musician when he can play good music

Happiness is a virtuous activity (not just being in a state or a condition, but doing right).

• Eudaimonia: Real happiness that can be reached only developing a virtuous character in accordance with reason

• According to Aristotle, happiness is neither pleasure nor material nor social gain. It has to do with inner peace, personal well-being and balance

• Moral virtues come with habitual practice

• Greek work “Ethos” - habit

• The goal of a human being as such is neither simple nutrition (plants) nor perception (animals), but living through reason, that is, virtuous activity

• So in order to be happy a man should be virtuous (following virtue), and pleasure is strictly connected with virtue

Virtue depends on the means a man is using to get what he desires: a free choice

Two kind of virtues:

1. Moral virtues: following reason over passions in determining good mores (for example, justice, temperance, courage…)

2. Intellectual virtues: the exercise of reason (for example, practical wisdom, theoretical wisdom, science…)

We exercise our reason in two ways:

• Practical thinking/reason (phronesis)

• Theoretical reasoning – discovering of higher truths

Potentially all free males can become ethically virtuous and practically wise through two stages:

• Habits developed since their childhood

Practical Wisdom is acquired in adulthood

Friendship

Three reasons for loving someone:

1. he/she is good

2. he/she is useful

3. he/she is pleasant

Perfect friendship when they are equally virtuous

• A genuine friend is someone who loves or likes the other person for the sake of that other person: reciprocal good will

• Only the first kind is perfect friendship