Term Paper on "Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics"

Term Paper 5 pages (2143 words) Sources: 2 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is one of the classical and most cited philosophical works treating of morality. In the second book of the Ethics, Aristotle defines the relation between character and virtue as being mediated by or depending on the two antagonist feelings of pleasure and pain. Aristotle supports his affirmation with a few basic arguments: first of all, according to the Greek philosopher, virtue or goodness are not inherent in men, but are acquired through habit. Thus, it logically follows that the virtuous character of a certain person is determined by some external factors which influence his or her behavior in a good or bad direction, and Aristotle identifies these factors with the feelings of pain and pleasure. Any action can result in a sensation of pleasure and pain, and therefore, a man acts so as to avoid pain or to experience pleasure. More importantly, pleasure and pain not only influence the behavior of an individual before a particular action, but are also very important in determining the state or the character of a man after a certain action. Thus, depending on the feelings an individual has during or after performing a certain act, he or she might be termed as virtuous or not. Moreover, correction and reward, meant to amend or to support a particular type of action, are based on the same two principles of pleasure and pain.

Therefore, Aristotle's proposition that virtue is about pleasure and pain implies that goodness is inevitably related to the feelings that accompany an action. Actually, pleasure and pain are present at any point of a certain act: first of all, they are the feelings that cause our actions, then they accompany our actions, and finally they may be the results of an action in the form of either reward or punishment.

Although Aristotle advocates that morality is acquired by means of habit (a word which has a common root with "morality" in Greek), and that sometimes a virtuous action does not necessarily imply that the affections be involved in it, the character of an individual always depends on the feelings of pleasure and pain, and the way he or she related to these. Thus, the virtue of character is, according to Aristotle, derived from our actions and measured on the basis of our attitudes towards pleasure and pain. Just as the other type of virtue - the virtue of thought-, the virtue of character is not innate but acquired in time:

Virtue, then, is of two sorts, virtue of thought and virtue of character. Virtue of thought arises and grows mostly from teaching; that is why it needs experience and time. Virtue of character [i.e., of ?thos] results from habit [ethos]; hence its name 'ethical', slightly varied from 'ethos."(1103a15-16)

An individual becomes virtuous when he performs a virtuous action:

we become just by doing just actions, temperate by doing temperate actions, brave by doing brave actions."(1103b)

Aristotle indicates that the character of a person becomes just, for instance, when accomplishing a just action. However, the justness is entirely dependent on the way in which the individual relates to the pleasure or pain induced by that action, that is, in this case, a man should experience pleasure or at least content during and after the just act he is the author of.

A series of virtuous actions accompanied by a feeling of pleasure which results from their realization determines, in Aristotle's view the type of character a person has:

To sum it up in a single account: a state [of character] results from [the repetition of] similar activities."(1103b21)

Thus, the fundamental contention of the Aristotelian theory of virtue is that, good actions by themselves should not be considered virtuous if the agent is not virtuous himself, or does not experience the proper feelings of pleasure or pain upon doing something. Aristotle provides us with his own example meant to sustain the statement above:

For if someone who abstains from bodily pleasures enjoys the abstinence itself, he is temperate; if he is grieved by it, he is intemperate. Again, if he stands firm against terrifying situations and enjoys it, or at least does not find it painful, he is brave; if he finds it painful, he is cowardly. For virtue of character is about pleasures and pains."(1104a20-24)

Thus, it is imperative to discriminate between, for example, an individual who abstains and enjoys abstaining, and an individual who is equally abstinent, but does this with great pain. The distinction between these two apparently identical and good actions is, according to Aristotle, precisely one of virtue of character.

This is why, in his view the reaction of either pleasure or pain to a certain situation or state of facts always determines the character of a certain person. However, to attain virtue is not at all simple, given the fact that, as Aristotle asserts we are used to indulging in wrong actions that provide us with pleasure.

This is why it would be essential to be educated from the start in the direction of virtue, and to make sure we perform only appropriate actions. This emphasizes again Aristotle's idea that the actions by themselves are not enough to determine a certain character. His implication is that what is actually hard to acquire is not the distinction between good and bad as such, but the proper attitude in front of an action, that is finding enjoyment in the right actions and pain in the wrong actions:

That is why we need to have had the appropriate upbringing -- right from early youth, as Plato says-- to make us find enjoyment or pain in the right things; for this is the correct education." (1104b10)

Further on, Aristotle distinguishes between the crafts that are done properly and have good results, and the actions which also have good results, but that can be done improperly. As he argues, the product which is the result of a certain craft will always show by its quality whether the method employed by the doer had been appropriate or not, whereas the good result of a certain action can not plead for the virtuous character of the person who did it:

For the products of a craft determine by their own qualities whether they have been produced well; and so it suffices that they have the right qualities when they have been produced. But for actions in accord with the virtues to be done temperately or justly it does not suffice that they themselves have the right qualities. Rather, the agent must also be in the right state when he does them. First, he must know [that he is doing virtuous actions]; second, he must decide on them, and decide on them for themselves; and, third, he must also do them from a firm and unchanging state."(1105a27-33)

Aristotle emphasizes that the agent has to be "in the right state" when performing an action, so as to be termed as virtuous. This is to say again that the dual feelings of pleasure and pain play a crucial part in modifying a certain action so as it may be considered good or bad. In fact, as the philosopher argues, virtues are always concerned with feelings to the same extent they are concerned with actions:

Further, virtues are concerned with actions and feelings; but every feeling and every action implies pleasure and pain."(1104b14-15)

Pleasure and pain appear in the light of Aristotle's theory, to be inseparable from virtue, as they are crucial when interpreting any act as positive or negative. The philosopher emphasizes that his own discussion of virtue is not merely theoretical and that it should be viewed as an action in itself, which pursues a practical purpose- to make us good, and not merely to reveal the nature of virtue:

Our present discussion does not aim, as our others do, at study; for the purpose of our examination is not to know what virtue is, but to become good, since otherwise the inquiry would be of no good to us."(1103b29-30)

This implies that it is useless to construct a theory about virtue, without any practical goal, and that, as Aristotle asserts from the start, the practice of virtue requires education and teaching.

Thus, as it can be seen, pleasure and pain are essential for virtue, and can only be established by practice and education. The fact that the virtuous conduct is rewarded by society, whereas the bad behavior is usually amended backs up the theory about pleasure and pain as crucial for defining the virtuous character. As Aristotle notices, the correction of a certain action by its contrary action reaffirms his theory:

Corrective treatments also indicate this, since they use pleasures and pains; for correction is a form of medical treatment, and medical treatment naturally operates through contraries." (1104b16)

Punishment and pain are inflicted for unlawful pleasure, and thus, it can be proven that virtue is also connected with pleasure, and that the difference is one of attitude in front of a certain action. Aristotle… READ MORE

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