According to Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, ideal ethics were understood by finding the mean of two extreme positions. For example, "courage," a virtue, was the mean between rashness and cowardice, both of which are bad. Likewise, temperance was the mean of self-denial and self-indulgence.
We could imagine many modern virtues that might be arrived at through this process. In fact, many modern people talk about achieving balance in their lives, especially a balance between work and family life, or work and leisure time, which an increasing body of scientific work shows is essential to health. So we might say that a healthy "work-life balance" might be the mean of laziness and what people in the twentieth century called being a "workaholic." Good parenting, certainly a virtue, could be a mean between being too indulgent and being too strict. Aristotle also framed virtues as habits, meaningless without being put into action in human life, a principle which could be applied to any modern virtue, however we define them.
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.html
Friday, May 3, 2019
Choose some virtue not discussed by Aristotle and present an Aristotellan analysis. The virtue cannot be accountability or forgiveness.
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