Virtues, according to Aristotle are formed by habits. As a result, virtues are the result of habits. Furthermore, Aristotle makes the argument that virtue is the disposition to act in a right manner. Furthermore, the habits to be acquired need to be repeated and corrected to live an ethical life. Therefore, virtue requires discipline and consistent habits, more external than internal, as opposed to say, Socrates. Will Durant in his book “The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers” summarizes this best when discussing Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle defends his claim that we acquire virtue through habit, by illustrating the fact that “Virtue” is not a skill that can be taught. His example, to argue this point is how there are no young children who are exceptionally well versed in what morality is, while we do have children who are geniuses in subjects such as physics or chess, two areas that can technically be taught at a very young age. …show more content…
Henceforth, to best illustrate his point that virtue is something we acquire over time through habits we have a quote from Aristotle ‘by doing the acts that we do in our transactions with other men we become just or unjust, and by doing the acts that we do in the presence of danger, and by being habituated to feel fear or confidence, we become brave or cowardly’. Here in lies, a key point in his argument that virtue is heavily influenced by the habits we take part in as young adolescents. Therefore, he makes the point that it is of grave importance we take part in habits that are good for us, in other words, we need to learn to take pleasure in activities that are the right things to take pleasure in and find pain in the things that are not good for