- Those who love pleasure (women, men, wine, song, dance)
- Those who love honour (service to the community-army)
- Those who love contemplation (devoted to thinking-philosophers)
There is one thing that distinguishes us form the rest of the creation- and that is our ability to reason. We have the ability to reason in order to think about the qualities of our lives and how we can make our lives better.
He then went on to say about the soul. The soul can be divided into two separate parts- rational and irrational. Rational can then be subdivided into calculative and scientific. Scientific is the part of the mind that grasps knowledge of facts, and calculative is the section which makes us think about things in order for us to make a decision. Irrational can also be divided into vegative and desiderate. Vegative is based on nutrition and growth, which are the basic instincts needed for the soul to survive- eating, drinking, testing and procreating. Desiderate is associated with the desires that everyone faces. It is not food in general but a certain food such as a cheeseburger with onions and fries. These desires are wants and are not necessary for human survival.
The virtues are at the heart of Aristotle’s Theory. The virtue is so called because the qualities of mind and character are at the heart of his argument. There are two sorts of virtues; moral and intellectual. Moral virtues or qualities of character are connected to the desiderative irrational part of the soul. E.g. courage, modesty. They can only be cultivated through habit. Intellectual virtues or qualities of mind are connected the rational half of the soul, e.g. wisdom and understanding. They can only be cultivated through instruction. Aristotle also put forward the twelve moral virtues. He said that you can either be in excess of a virtue or deficient of it. For example, modesty is a virtue. Excess of modesty becomes shyness and to be deficient you become shamelessness. Aristotle also put forward the intellectual virtues. There are 9 intellectual virtues consisting of five main or primary virtues and four secondary virtues. The five primary virtues are:
- Art or technical skill-the skill of knowing how to bring something into existence, e.g. drive a car or build a house.
- Scientific knowledge- the facts of the universe, the knowledge of the objects that are in existence in the universe and all of the laws.
- Practical Wisdom (Prudence) this is one of the most important virtues because it helps us to balance our interests with the interests of others.
- Intelligence or Intuition-this is a key virtue because without intelligence nothing else can happen in the mind.
- Wisdom- This is the finished form of all virtues.
He then said about the four secondary virtues-
- Resourcefulness or good deliberation- this involves knowing where and how to enquire something and coming up with the best decision for everyone.
- Understanding- to understand something is to recognise both the difficulties and strengths associated with decision making.
- Judgement- in order for someone’s judgement to be correct, they have to take into account what is right and just for everyone involved.
- Cleverness- this is the last of the secondary intellectual virtues.
According to Aristotle, we all have the potential to develop both the intellectual and moral virtues. We should try to steer away from either excess or deficiency and try to hit the mid way point.
Friendship is the main aim of one’s moral life, It is essential for Aristotle as if we did not have friendship then neither of the virtues that he put forward would be of any value at all.
He said that there are three types of friendships- based on utility, pleasure and goodness. Utility friendships, which are useful to us, e.g. work friends, pleasurable friendships are where friends give us pleasure and in time the friendship will develop through feelings and emotions. The relationships are governed more by the heart than by the head. Lastly, perfect friendships. These are obviously of most value. Here the friend cares more about the other person than themselves. However, these friendships can only occur after quite a long period.
