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"Aristotelian Conceptions of Virtue: Past and Present".

"Aristotelian Conceptions of Virtue: Past and Present".


Even more so than Socrates or Plato before him, Aristotle was a philosopher who defended and upheld his contemporary ways of life. Although there are many noteworthy ideas that he left, he was clearly biased towards the values of society which were prevalent in his days. Many people criticize him for not being rebellious against certain aspects of ancient Greek society, such as sexism, slavery, and undemocratic rule by a leisurely few.

In this aspect, Bertrand Russell wrote that "What he has to say is what will be useful to comfortable men of weak passions; but he has nothing to say to those who are possessed by a god or a devil, or whom outward misfortune drives to despair." In other words, the author accused Aristotle of being spoiled, bland, and unpractical: the Greek philosopher's only assurance being that "Maturity will bring and answer".

Granted, the basis of Aristotelian ethics lies in the concept that ethical knowledge is substantially different from theoretical knowledge, in the sense that ethics are a practical discipline that requires constant practice; only thus can one become genuinely "good", by practicing virtue, instead of merely studying it. Consequently the philosopher realized that he’d have to focus his efforts on establishing what virtue is. In this sense, he developed the concept of the Highest Good, as the common objective among all that is virtuous.

A virtue is thus a characteristic of the intellect or the character that allows one to gradually set out in pursuit the Highest Good. The virtuous path is closely associated to balance and avoidance of extremes, since each virtue is bounded by two vices. For instance: while lack of courage is cowardice, its excess is rashness; while the middle way constitutes a virtue, its extremes constitute vices, in the sense they cause one to stray from the Good path.

Aristotle distinguishes thus between two kinds of Virtue: those pertaining to the character (practical thinking), and those that are related to the reasoning; The leading virtues that Aristotle considers necessary in the life of a proper high-born Greek citizen are Courage, Temperance, Liberality, Magnificence, Greatness of soul, Good temper or Gentleness, Being agreeable in company, Wittiness, Modesty.

It is plain to see that this set of virtues is established as a standard of behavior for the well-adjusted and respected citizen of the time. Therefore, the main critics that one might present to this conception of virtues would also apply to the standard respected citizen of Ancient Greece. As we know, many of them indulged in practices which are nowadays highly disregarded, such as slavery, pedophilia. Furthermore, they had a rude misconception of the role of women: it was a blatantly sexist society, where the females where seen as lesser persons than the male counterparts, at least from a socio-political standpoint.

The Greek society was indeed rule by a few leisurely, affluent men who indulged in running the country as tough they were playing a board game of sorts, with relative considerations to the interests of the few. Granted, Aristotle promoted virtues such as Greatness of Soul and Gentleness, which refer to the ability of treating "lesser" citizens as tough they were the same. But still, we should consider that the virtues he advocates are arguably the ones he finds most necessary to preserve his decaying society.

Following this logic (and considering our society is just as decaying as theirs), I wouldn't have any doubt that the single virtue that would be most important to include in Aristotle's list is indeed Humility. This concept is more elusive than we might think, tough. A recurrent definition would be something in the lines of "A humble person is generally thought to be unpretentious and modest: someone who does not think that he or she is better or more important than others". (wiki).

The quality of being humble is as rare in the present times as it was in the Greek society, perhaps even more. And perhaps even more necessary, as well: while it is plain to see that the Greek society was ruled by presumptuous and reckless men, it goes without argument that our own society is none the better.

If our politics were humble, it goes with little argument that the world would be a better place; if the people in power could think of themselves as equal to the common people they would be more likely to effectively address matters that need to be resolved, such as poverty and social disparity. Without humility, those who have power (in whatever form it may take) tend to view themselves as superior to those who don't, and this is the single issue that causes conflicts on a global scale: the lack of understanding to the common grounds of human experience, from where the conception transpires that not everyone is equal, or that some people are more equal than others.

I think that in such a troublesome era as our own, Humility could be the single quality that would cause the world to be a better place, since humility prompts for compassion, equality and mutual respect.







Works Cited:
"Aristotle's Ethics" http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/
"Ethics in Ancient Greece" by Christopher Rowe, in pp128-9 of Blackwell Companions to Philosophy:A Companion to Ethics, ed. Peter Singer, 1991.
"Humility". Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia; accessed 26/09/06 at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humility>
Russell, Bertrand. History of Western Philosophy. Touchstone Books, 1984.
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Posted by: Natalie Saturday

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