In another aspect, for the conclusion based on empiricism above—we cannot know what right is and what wrong is, Aristotle provides his own idea about what right is. In his book The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle (1947) claims that we act rightly if we perform in accordance with the “proper excellence” and ethics—in another word—moral virtue.
According to Aristotle (1947), if we declare that “the exercise of the soul’s faculties and activities in association with rational principle” as the form of a man—in other words, the function of a man, and say “that the function of a good man is to perform these activities well and rightly, and if a function is well performed when it is performed in accordance with its own proper excellence”, then the right actions of a man are the actions performed in conformity with excellence and virtue. What’s more, the actions must go through the whole life, which means the actions need to occupy in a very long time and become the habits with similar passions or affections to our characters. Like the right actions of a scholar reside
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A virtue man feels good while he acting rightly, and feels bad while he acting wrongly; i.e., he need to know about what he is doing. This man “must act with knowledge” and must make a decision based on his disposition of his character. So, the virtue of a scholar is to choose to act in a right way with the knowledge of what he or she is doing. Moreover, the decision, the choice made by this man must to be appropriate. For an appropriate choice, is the middle way between two most extreme choices—excess and deficiency. Take friendliness for an example, if a man never gets along with others, he is too cold and antisocial; if a man is always attentive others, he is overly subservient; so in the case, the virtue is to choose a middle way—treating others kindly and politely is friendliness (Aristotle,