Aristotle's Theories Of Virtue

As of today, driving while intoxicated is an ethical issue in our society. Although this was not a problem during Aristotle’s time, a lot of theories can be used to refute this concern. In this essay I will talk about the standing issue and how it is unethical through Aristotle’s theories of virtue and his concept of voluntary and involuntary actions, as well as the natural law theory.

Aristotle believes that we tend to either have excess or deficiency. He also believes that finding a middle ground is extremely important in being a good person. He states that if we are trying to make a decision, and we have only two options, we are to pick the option that is least harmful. For example, Joe decides he wants to drink this Friday night, but he

Although, neither may be his intention for the evening, it is obvious that the least harmful of the two is sobriety (Aristotle).

Virtue is defined as mankind living according to reason. We are to simply live out our lives and serve our purpose here on Earth. He argues that what we know and our actions are not by nature, but they are all habitual.

Therefore, the virtuous that we believe in, will automatically be what we practice. The point here is that the morals instilled in us, have been acquired from the environments we have been in, therefore, it has all been learned. From an early age we have acquired all these opinions in our minds through those around us (whether adults, teachers, or friends. We simply practice these thoughts and opinions in our day to day lives. To give an example, take a child who is in a alcoholic abusive family. Say the child’s father regularly drove while being under the influence and the child grew up with

Thus, if a man knowingly acts in a way that will result in his becoming unjust, he must be said to be voluntarily unjust (Aristotle 396).

Alcohol abuse is a topic that is not discussed in our society- we know it is absolutely wrong and absurd to do such a thing, but this does not seem stop anyone from making those poor decisions. In the fourth century BC, during Aristotle’s time, the view on alcoholism was the same as today, in our modern word. Though, todays new technological advancements have made alcohol abuse incredibly dangerous. Driving while intoxicated is an enormous concern that is taken lightly in our society. With all that said, even though we know the dangers of alcohol abuse and driving while intoxicated, the problem will never cease to exist, all we can do is come up with solutions and make the consequences for people’s actions more