Apr 1/4 – Blog #14
“A virtuous action must be voluntary in order for it to be virtuous.”
According to Aristotle, the “incontinent man” is a man who has the ability to deliberate on whether or not to make the right decision. The incontinent man unlike a normal virtuous man, who tends to do the right thing when given a chance, he is unable to reach actuality with that deliberation. All of humanity should strive to have the virtues of the incontinent man, but unlike him, follow through with the action. In this way, we are able to assess a situation and how your moral compass reacts to that situation. Aristotle states that the golden mean of being “virtuous” is having courage and being honest. Based solely off this, right or wrong actions can be judged off of simply whether or not those actions are courageous or honest. But, the one flaw in this is that it all depends on the situation. The right or wrong choice varies from situation to situation. As he also said, “if you do the right thing over and over again, it will become part of your character,” which in turn is obtained by emulating someone else who possess the same virtues you desire. When you fully realize virtues, you do the right thing no matter what, and this is the pinnacle of Aristotle’s argument.
Aristotle developed a principle called Eudaimonia, which in short is the one word to describe someone who lives a life of striving for new things, full of success. A person who lives in Eudaimonia is someone who is always setting new goals for themselves and trying to develop new muscles everyday(not literally). This goes hand in hand with his prior teachings in Nicomachean Ethics because Eudaimonistic people live virtuous lives and are constantly trying to do good in the world. This also correlates directly back to what he says about virtue becoming part of one’s character through repetition. Eudaimonia is the actualization of someone who builds their character and virtues through doing it everyday. It is the epitome of these writings.
I hate to be that guy that just up and front agrees with everything Aristotle says, but I really do. I think that in order to be a virtuous person, you must do so through constant repetition in order to fully achieve those virtues. It’s with anything, learning a language, playing an instrument, anything that requires effort and practice is structured in the same way that becoming a virtuous person is. In this way, Aristotle states that in order to be happy as humans we must do the right thing. So by this same token, if we want to be happy, we must live virtuous and honest lives, which means doing the right thing voluntarily and not telling us to do the right thing before we can do it ourselves.
So, this brings me back to the “incontinent man.” The incontinent man cannot exercise his ethical knowledge because he is not aware of his knowledge. Aristotle compares the incontinent man to the likes a drunk person. “If a drunk mathematician were presented with a calculus equation, the likelihood that they are able to solve the problem correctly and consciously is very low, because their knowledge is hindered.” Similarly, the incontinent man is unable to judge whether a situation is right or wrong because one’s perceptual knowledge is dragged out and blinded by their passions(vices).
Read up on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics here.
Sources: http://www.owl232.net/papers/arist1.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrvtOWEXDIQ
580 words.
Mind of Lucca 