Aristotle and the Path to Virtue: A Philosophical Comparison

Introduction: The Diversity of Paths to Virtue

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 is to engage the higher faculties of reasoning — of which man alone, of all God's creatures, is capable — and to act accordingly. The most essential component of this summary of the Greek philosopher's wisdom, however, lies in its final part. 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 must therefore be conducted into the diversity of means and philosophies propagated throughout history in order to determine which method is most suitable. The crux of the matter — and one of the most salient points on which most philosophers have disagreed — is that the answer to such a question is largely dependent on the needs and abilities of the individual.

Aristotle on Reason, Function, and Moral Excellence

Aristotle's definition of happiness can be achieved through moral rectitude. Central to this definition is the concept of actuation, as well as 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. The intended function of a person, importantly, is to capitalize on his or her ability to reason, since that ability is one of the primary distinctions between human beings and other life forms. Subsequently, Aristotle recommended a life of quiet contemplation — the life of a philosopher — as one of the most ideal ways of utilizing man's capability and achieving moral rectitude by giving due diligence to matters intellectual in nature.

The following quotation from Aristotle's "The Object of Life," which originally appears in his Nicomachean Ethics, offers 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 statement highlights Aristotle's emphasis that the proper function of humans is to reason, which is a prerequisite for moral excellence. The quotation's reference to the soul also underscores the idea that reasoning is divine in nature, corroborating the view that the use of such reason is man's intended purpose.

Interestingly, Aristotle attaches considerable importance to education as a requirement for virtue and for the actualization of the higher faculties of reasoning. People need to be taught what is morally correct and need to base their actions on ethical principles in order to combine wisdom with intellect and live accordingly. The understanding imparted by teachers, parents, and philosophers makes people capable of distinguishing virtuous behavior from less admirable alternatives — generally stratified into the base concerns of vulgar, selfish pleasure and the equally selfish pursuit of honor and fame. Aristotle's preferred mode of existence, morally confined to the system of ethics for which he believed mankind best suited, was the life of a rational contemplator of substantive issues.

Hobbes and the Moral Necessity of Commonwealth

The pathway to a flourishing, thinking, and moral human being is not always as clear-cut 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 and establishing social order, viewed ethics in a more relative sense. Although Hobbes's philosophy was not quite mercurial enough to be labeled situational ethics, the following quotation from Of the Natural Condition of Mankind, As Concerning Their Felicity, and Misery — the thirteenth chapter of his seminal treatise Leviathan — alludes to the latitude he granted moral behavior under 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, pp. 76–78).

It should be noted that the extreme nature of the sentiment expressed in this quotation is delivered within the larger context of persuading the reader that the founding and safekeeping of a governmental state is one of the primary methods of achieving moral behavior, enforceable and punishable by law. Without such a state, Hobbes believes that men exist in a somewhat amoral condition whereby one may lawfully — and, in his view, ethically — take from another man whatsoever one has the means to take and protect. In such a state of "war," all behavior is ethical, and the Aristotelian conception of happiness through morally adherent behavior becomes distorted to include acts — selfish and otherwise — which Aristotle likely would not have approved, but which Hobbes endorses largely to persuade the reader to adopt and be grateful for the presence of a commonwealth. A variation of this argument, expressed in John Locke's "Of the Beginning of Political Societies," leads Locke to a similar conclusion.

Conclusion: Means, Ends, and the Divine in Moral Life

The ultimate result of Aristotle's moral excellence, it appears, would be to express the divinity of mankind's creator within men and women. The "immortality" referenced in the passage is the immortality of God, creating a parallel between how man should attempt to act and how God does — a standard that would seem to rule out Mill's utilitarianism entirely. The means of an action are, for Aristotle, equally as important as the result. Across the perspectives examined here — Aristotle's rational contemplation, Hobbes's commonwealth, Nietzsche's oblique argument for belief, and Mill's consequentialism — what emerges is that the most appropriate path to virtue depends significantly on the individual's capacities and circumstances, even as Aristotle's insistence on the integrity of both means and ends remains the most demanding and philosophically consistent standard.

Works Cited

Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011. Print.

Hobbes, Thomas. Leviathan. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1994. Print.

Mill, John Stuart. On Liberty. New York: Penguin Classics, 1985. Print.

Minch, Michael, and Christine Weigel. Living Ethics. Washington: Thomson, 2008. Print.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Gay Science. New York: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 1882. Print.