Aristotle's concept of virtue and ethical development

¶ … Ethical Virtue

The Nature of Virtue:

The process of human socialization involves extensive learning of societal norms, values, and expectations. In addition to teaching specific behaviors and practices, social norms and values also provide a framework for any understanding of what is considered "good" or "bad." Those concepts dominate much of human social relations and the individual begins learning them formally and absorbing them passively in infancy and early childhood.

To Aristotle, virtue was a life-long process that required striving for moderation between the two most extreme excesses and deficiencies in human conduct. He called this doctrine the mean state do denote its intermediate position relative to human excess and human deficiency. Aristotle considered the highest virtue to be intellectual contemplation, because logical contemplation is necessary for any accurate understanding of anything from which virtues can be derived.

Objective Virtue vs. Ethical Relativism:

Because human social learning is culture-specific and so dependent on unconscious absorption of norms, values, and expectations, specific cultural values and social norms differ substantially among different societies. Concepts that are considered to have the most negative (even abhorrent) connotations in one society may be regarded much more positively (even promoted) in others. Typical examples in contemporary human societies might include the way Eastern and Western societies regard certain animal foods; social expectations with respect to appropriate attire in the West and many countries in the Middle East; as well as predominant religious beliefs and values, and myriad other extremely different social practices that are all considered the "norm" in their respective societies.

Those virtues considered the most important by society often generate formal rules that may be enforced by state criminal authority and penal consequences for violation. Other less formal societal virtues may not be controlled by the state, but violation of social norms may often result in social rejection and other spontaneous negative consequences in public. For example, Jews and Muslims do not eat pork products or shellfish, Hindus do not eat cows, and in the United States, dogs and cats are considered pets exclusively, and rats considered filthy vermin; none of them are eaten. In many parts of India, cows are considered sacred and (depending on which particular society) rats are either revered and pampered in religious temples or trapped in large numbers for food. In many parts of the U.S., transvestites are considered social deviants; in parts of Indochina, they are celebrated.

The Argument for Objective Virtue: