Aristotle's Disposition Of Virtue

Virtue is the most common translation of the Greek word arete, however it is occasionally translated as “excellence.” Virtue is usually an acceptable translation in the Ethics because it deals specifically with human excellence. For example: a sword’s excellence rests in its sharpness, a person’s excellence rests in living according to the various moral, intellectual virtues, and happiness.

In humans, virtue is the nature of the soul. In other words, virtue is excellence, a noble quality, and goodness of something. Virtue is acquired from habit not from nature. The more opportunities one has to behave virtuously, and the more times one successfully does so, the more experience one gains in being virtuous. I think that the conditions one has

Sometimes “people are stimulated to develop their virtues and reduce their vices by circumstantial pressures than by philosophical reflection on the conduct proper to a rational creature who respects his own rationality (Scarre p. 11).” Aristotle calls happiness an activity in Book I, meaning that happiness is not an affecting state but a way of living. Happiness is demonstrated not in who we are but in how we act amongst others. Virtue is a disposition meaning that it is a state of being and not an activity. More precisely, virtue is the behavior we demonstrate to lead to a happy

Truthfulness is a mixture between arrogance and self-depreciation. Wit is the mean with regard to humor and amusement. Prudence is the intellectual virtue of practical reason. It is concerned with human actions and gives a person the ability to choose what the virtuous balance is in specific situations. Continence and incontinence are concerned with bodily pleasures. According to Aristotle “while the continent person knows what is right but must face down the temptation to do wrong, the virtuous subject, according to Aristotle, attains a correct mean in passions and actions; he or she feels pleasure and pain (Scarre p. 1).” The incontinent man is driven to do what he knows is immoral because of his passions. The continent man knows that his desires are immoral but does not pursue them because of