B. Virtue, arete, or excellence is defined as a mean between two extremes of excess and defect in regard to a feeling or action as the practically wise person would determine it. Liberality with wealth and possessions, 4. 23. Nichomachean Ethics, Book IV, Chapter II, pg. Righteous indignation in the face of injury. It guides a person without specific rules for resolving the ethical complexity. And that if he or she wishes to become better, effort must be expended. Dishonesty and insincerity also corrupted the character and prematurely aged the body from the mere stress and worry of being “found out.”, Being young among friends did not mean that you hung out with those older than you. For other pleasures, ones with no positive gain for him, the temperate man would shun altogether, whereas the self-indulgent man would accept without reservation. This is an essay on ethics. Arete (virtue) synonyms, Arete (virtue) pronunciation, Arete (virtue) translation, English dictionary definition of Arete (virtue). Looking for Arete (virtue)? The Greeks did not believe that the good should be sacrificed to the bad, that the productive should finance the nonproductive, that the healthy should be enslaved to the sick. Though the tradition receded into the background of European philosophical thought in these past few centuries, the term "virtue" remained current during this period, and in fact appears prominently in the tradition of classical republicanism or classical liberalism.  Others argue that laws should be made by virtuous legislators.  In the Nicomachean Ethics he discusses about 11 moral virtues: 2. A virtue is generally agreed to be a character trait, such as a habitual action or settled sentiment. …They had physical vigor and high spirits and time, too, for fun. It is concerned with many other actions as well, with emotions and emotional reactions, choices, values, desires, perceptions, attitudes, interests, expectations and sensibilities. There are several lists of particular virtues. Just as the Greeks laid the foundation for the conceptual development of science, math, history, literature, and romantic art, they also laid the foundations for the rational development of character. The term from Homeric times onwards is not gender specific. They despised pure theory – thought cut off and detached from the world.  For the virtue theorist, eudaimonia describes that state achieved by the person who lives the proper human life, an outcome that can be reached by practicing the virtues. Aristotle’s Ethics Good is that at which all things aim. In any culture, of course, there are men that disagree. Join here. It was as natural for the polis to have gymnasia as to have a theatre or warships, and they were constantly used by men of all ages, not only for physical but also for mental exercise.”[vi]. It is obvious – if you are courageous enough to look at it and name it. [i] Edith Hamilton. Eudaimonia (εὐδαιμονία) is a state variously translated from Greek as 'well-being', 'happiness', 'blessedness', and in the context of virtue ethics, 'human flourishing'. Socrates argued that virtue is knowledge, which suggests that there is really only one virtue. Enter your email and stay on top of things! With the opposite morality at work today, we get quite the opposite effect. We often talk about “arete” or “virtue “although the Latin-based word is not conveying the full meaning. do not promote life) then your actions used to obtain these values become not virtues, but vices. Quandary ethics. 2. The mind is that which reasons, and the body is that which acts, based on that reason. And your choices are determined by your ability to think. Wayne Rooney There are also difficulties in identifying what is the "virtuous" action to take in all circumstances, and how to define a virtue. Consequentialist and deontological theories often still employ the term 'virtue', but in a restricted sense, namely as a tendency or disposition to adhere to the system's principles or rules. As the great Greek Statesman Pericles put it, “As for poverty, no one should be ashamed to admit it, the only shame lies in not taking practical measures to escape it.”, The Greeks held life as a supreme value. H. D. F. Kitto writes, “The Greek made physical training an important part of education, not because he said to himself, ‘Look here, we mustn’t forget the body’, but because it could never occur to him to train anything but the whole man. As it happens in these cases, we all use the same word, but each one has potentially a different understanding or interpretation of it. The Landmark Thucydides, Robert B. Strassler, Editor. Mind 80 (320):552–571. The Greeks, for the most part, did not believe that the mind and the body could ever be separated; they could only be distinguished as two characteristics of the same one entity: Man. It entailed consistently holding to values in the face of grave danger. It is unfortunate that, throughout history, with rare exception, all moral codes have been concerned with life in another “higher” dimension or reality. Although the use of a virtue frameworkis metaphorical rather than literal, I argue that by providing a frameworkfor identifying and critiquing assumptions about what a `good' computer is,a study of android arete provides focus and direction to the developmentof future computational agents. An example or kind of moral excellence: the virtue of patience. These very different senses of what constitutes virtue, hidden behind the same word, are a potential source of confusion. The Bible certainly promotes the development of an excellent, virtuous character. 1979. Arete, in its basic sense, means "excellence" of any kind. Unfortunately it takes a lot of time and effort to do it justice! Simon & Schuster, NY, 1996. The virtues also figure prominently in Aristotle's moral theory (see below). For a brilliant introductory lecture on the meaning of practical wisdom in virtue ethics by Professor Schwartz of the University of Colorado go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA-zdh_bQBo For Aristotle, the good life does not consist in isolated good actions as much as good character building a flourishing life (eudaimonia = happiness or flourishing). Thus, to identify the virtues for human beings, one must have an account of what is the human purpose. The Greek Way, W.W.Norton and Co., NY, 1964. There is a great deal of disagreement within virtue ethics over what are virtues and what are not. For humans these values can be a career, friendship, love, sex, wealth, beauty; even material values such as a home, good clothes, a new car, etc. Aristocracy is … Defining the “Self-Indulgent” man, Aristotle states that he “craves for all pleasant things or those that are most pleasant, and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else.”[iv] Today a temperate man would have a few drinks among friends, a self-indulgent man would be a bingeing drunkard. Any speculation, thought, or theory had to be tied back to this earth – because what on earth would it be good for if it were not? The name of our company means "character excellence" or "moral excellence" or "moral virtue." In recent years as an example or kind of moral theory among certain of... Characteristics, that the very character of the Egyptian lies spread out in the western philosophical tradition arete virtue ethics! Books, London, 1951 is open to an individual ’ s virtue ethics teaches that Greeks... 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