Aristotelian Sense There Are Nearly

Aristotelian Sense

There are nearly as many ways to walk the path of virtue as there are historical figures who have written accounts on how to do so. One of the foremost authorities on the subject, Aristotle, provided several detailed arguments positing that the best way to engender virtuous behavior would be to engage in the higher faculties of reasoning of which man alone (of God's creatures) is capable of doing, and to act accordingly. The most essential component of this attenuated summary of the Greek philosopher's wisdom, however, lies in the final part of the summary. The proper course of action, the means by which it is produced and the intentions by which it is conceived, is what differentiates many opinions about how best to achieve a moral existence. Careful examination then, must be conducted into the diversity of means and philosophies propagated throughout history to determine which method is most suitable. The crux of the matter is, as well as one of the most salient points which most philosophers have disagreed upon, is that the answer to such a question is largely up to the needs and ability of the individual.

Aristotle's definition of happiness can be achieved through moral rectitude. Central to this definition is the concept of actuation, as well as that of the functionality of virtue. Essentially, the philosopher believed that virtue could only be achieved by utilizing the proper function of a person or a thing. Interestingly enough, the intended functionality of the former would be to capitalize on his or her ability to reason, since it is that ability which is one of the primary distinctions between man and various other life forms existent. Subsequently, Aristotle unabashedly recommended a life of quiet contemplation -- that as a philosopher -- as one of the most ideal ways of utilizing man's capability and achieving moral rectitude by delivering due diligence to matter's intellectual in nature. The following quotation from Aristotles "The Object of Life," which originally appears in his Nicomachean Ethics, issues a succinct summary of this belief. "The function of man is activity of soul in accordance with reason, or at least not without reason." This quotation highlights Aristotle's emphasis that the functionality of humans is to reason, which is merely a prerequisite for moral excellence. The quotation's reference to the soul underscores the concept that the aspect of reasoning is divine in nature, which corroborates the viewpoint that the use of such reason is man's intended purpose.

Interestingly enough, the Greek philosopher attaches a fair degree of importance on an educational necessity as a requirement for virtue and, quite possibly, for the actuation of the higher faculties of reasoning in which man is capable of. People need to be taught what is morally correct, and need to be able to base their actions upon such ethical principles in order to combine wisdom with their intellect so they may live accordingly. The understanding of the wisdom imparted by others such as teachers, parents, and philosophers, makes people capable of distinguishing virtuous behavior from others, which are generally stratified into the base cares of vulgar, selfish pleasure, and the equally selfish attempt to exist for the achievement of honor and fame. His preferred method of existence, which is morally confined to the system of ethics for which he believed mankind best suited, was the life of a rational contemplator of putative issues.

Yet the pathway to a flourishing, thinking and moral human being is not always as steadfast for philosophers other than Aristotle. The political theorist Thomas Hobbes, who greatly advocated the founding and preservation of a commonwealth principally as a means of achieving moral rectitude as well as the establishment of hegemony, viewed ethics in a more relative sense. Although Hobbe's philosophy was not quite so mercurial as to be labeled situation ethics, the following quotation from Of the Natural Condition of Mankind, As Concerning Their Felicity, and Misery (the eighth chapter in his seminal treatise Leviathan) alludes to the liberties he granted moral behavior during certain circumstances. "During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war, and such a war as is of every man against every man…To this war of every man against every man, this also is consequent: that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice, have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law; where no law, no injustice (Hobbes p. 76-78)."

It should be noted that the extreme nature of the sentiment described in this quotation is delivered in the larger context of persuading the reader that the founding and safekeeping of a governmental state is one of the primary methods to achieve moral behavior, enforceable and punishable by law. The last sentence in this quotation ("no power…no law") certainly evinces this fact. Without such a state established, Hobbes believes that men exist in a somewhat amoral state whereby one can lawfully (and ethically) do or take from another man whatsoever one has the means to take and protect for oneself. In such a state of "war," all behavior is ethical and the means to the Aristotelian conception of happiness (which is morally adherent behavior) becomes distorted to include a number of acts -- selfish and otherwise -- which Aristotle probably would not have approved, but which Hobbes does: largely to persuade the reader to adopt and be thankful for the presence of a commonwealth to institute more traditionally ethical actions. A variation of this sentiment, expressed in John Locke's "Of the Beginning of Political Societies," leads Locke to this same conclusion

Other philosopher's have equally grim estimations of the perception of mankind and his morals. Friedrich Nietzsche, the noted existentialist and occasional nihilist, is a prime example of one whose view of mankind may be even lower than that of Hobbes. However, an inverse reading of his infamous "Madman" passage, taken from the Gay Science, actually elucidates a fair amount of insight into ways in which moral behavior may be achieved. The following quotation from the madman passage is presaged by a man's abrupt appearance into a group of atheist townsmen, who he then tells: "God is dead! God remains dead! And we have killed him…Where are we moving to? Away from all suns? Are we not continually falling? And backwards, sidewards, forwards, in all directions? Is there still an up and a down? Aren't we straying as through an infinite nothing (Nietzsche, p. 120)."

Of noted importance in this quotation is the fact that the madman exclaims that mankind is responsible for the death of God, which can generally be considered a voicing of the nihilist concept that there is nothing to believe in, not even God. The subsequent references to a directionless "falling," a drifting into "infinite nothing" further reinforces this notion that there is nothing concrete to believe in. Morally, then, it would seem that one of the prerequisites of avoiding the madness and perceived displeasure felt by the lunatic in the preceding passage would be to believe in something, and if nothing else, to believe in the presence and power of God. Aristotle's allusion to the soul, the human manifestation of a divinity greater than mankind, certainly adheres to this principle, while Nietzsche's madman passage buttresses this point-of-view by illustrating a bleak despair incurred without such divine manifestation. Therefore, it can be gathered from the two preceding passages that moral rectitude ascertained by living in a state in which universal law (treating others as one wants to be treated) is practiced, and believing in a higher power and the divine purpose of mankind are essential prerequisites.