Aristotle Virtue Theory Essay Example for Free

Aristotle Virtue Theory Essay Aristotle’s Virtue theory is based on Teleology and the Golden Mean. He says that to be virtuous that we need to act with excellence. He believed that everything on this earth has its own virtue, meaning that if it performs the way it’s supposed to by its nature then it is virtuous. He asserted that every event had four causes or four factors that work on it and to bring it into being; 1) Material Cause- the â€Å"stuff the thing is made of. 2) Efficient Cause- the force that has brought it into being. 3) Formal cause- the shape or idea (the Form) of the thing. 4) Final cause- the purpose of the thing. Virtue is not just for humans; it means that everything that exists has a purpose. The Golden Mean-is an action or feeling that corresponds to a particular situation at the right time, in the right way, in the right amount, and for the right reason. Not too much, not too little, everything in moderation. It is what is â€Å"Good for man† where a human can excel, what a human is meant to do and where a human will find happiness. He determined that if we are able to choose the proper response to every situation in life then we are morally good. It is all about the reasonably thought  out decisions we make and the action we take after we have made them. The virtuous person finds and choses the one that is intermediate. These are human concerns that are constant and remain the same concerns throughout the ages. Since we are human beings and capable of rational decision making we can be prone to go toward one extreme or the other, we must beware of our own short comings. It is only through habitually practicing to try to make the right decisions that we can aspire to become virtuous. It is not our response to a single situation but how we respond as a general rule. We need to be consistent in our actions. Aristotle realized that this is something that doesn’t come overnight but that it takes time to mold ourselves. How we find out what the mean is in every situation is through reason, the more times we have done it and acted correctly the better we can build the habit of responding appropriately. He specifies that there are some acts that are just wrong by themselves, i. e. stealing, lying and murdering, and cannot be done in the right amount. There are also acts that cannot be done too often such as justice. You can never be â€Å"too just†. It takes a lifetime of training and commitment we are not inherently born this way. It is not enough that you just act on your intentions but you need to succeed in order to be virtuous. Once you have succeeded in living a virtuous life then as a virtuous person your future actions will be generally virtuous because you developed virtuous habits. There are three dispositions to every situation: two vices, one on either side of virtue which in the middle. Aristotle advises us to keep trying until we get it right. Some extremes are closer to the middle than others. If you don’t know which one to choose, stay away from the extreme that is more opposed to the mean than the other extreme. We each have our own ideals and failings but our responses to a situation need to remain flexible and a virtuous response will reveal itself. The appropriate way to handle the situation will fall within a range that is recognized by other virtuous people. He believed that there could be a perfectly virtuous person. He also believed that if you are virtuous in one respect but fail terribly in another then you have lost out completely. If you deviate only slightly you are still a virtuous person, a person who is good at being human and at realizing the human potential. His thoughts on courage were that if you had too little courage you were a coward and that if you had too much courage you could be fool hardy, rush in and make rash decisions. He felt that there was nothing wrong with enjoying pleasure, but if you overdid it you are intemperate. If you are not capable of enjoying pleasure at all then you are unimpressionable. The virtue is to know in what amount to enjoy your pleasure, which would be temperance. The key is to enjoy in moderation. His opinion on spending money was that if you spend too much you are prodigal and spend too little  you’re a miser, just the right amount at the right time on the right people for the right reason makes you liberal. It is also possible to overestimate your honor, and become vain or underestimate it and become humble. He described proper pride as the virtuous way to estimate yourself and your accomplishments. There is nothing wrong with feeling angry but you need to be even tempered. Being hot tempered is 1 / 2 a vice but so is also being meek. Let your anger be in proportion to the offense against you. Truthfulness is a virtue but his idea of a deficiency of truthfulness is irony â€Å"mock modesty†Ã‚  (downplaying the situation), the excess of truthfulness, bragging. It is all about assessing the situation and acting accordingly, don’t underplay the truth but don’t overplay the truth either. The sole reason for designing the development of virtuous character was that Aristotle felt that being virtuous makes you happy. Happiness is what is good for a man. A good life means a happy life, but a good person also means a moral person. We can be happy only if we are good. Our highest goal, our purpose as a human being, is to live well, be happy, and to do well. He also warned that if  we rely too much on pleasures that one day they won’t give us the thrill they used to. What is good for us can’t be something that harms us and over indulgence in too many pleasures can be harmful. The requirement of true happiness is that it must be stand the test of time. Something that no one can take away from us and that is not harmful but beneficial that would be our good reasoning and contemplation. The ultimate happy life is that of the life of a thinker. He did not believe in an afterlife or a god that watches over humanity. He states that the soul is the  Ã¢â‚¬Å"form† of a human and the body is the â€Å"matter†, but since form cannot exist separately from matter when the body dies the soul ceases to exist. Happiness is only for the living and must be achieved in the here and now for a person to have fulfilled their purpose. One of the weaknesses of Virtue Ethics is that Aristotle was talking about the ruling class. If there is to be equality for all then there needs to be a moral theory that everyone follows regardless of whom they are. The laws need to be reasonable and clear. Virtues were also too vague and weren’t helpful in solving problems. When you have two virtuous  people that disagree how can you tell which one is correct. How is it decided which one is more virtuous than the other? With a clear set of morals and laws the problem is much easier resolved. Also why can’t humans have more than one purpose? There are many people that are equally good at several different things. Look at the musician that is equally good at playing the guitar and singing. Which purpose are they supposed to choose? Aristotle’s Virtue theory is basically based on the fact that everything has a purpose and as humans our happiness is determined by the choices that we make. We should always strive to achieve our purpose whatever that may be and during that struggle hopefully we will achieve happiness. His theory may have some weaknesses but some of the ideas are supportable in my opinion. You need to use your logic to make informed decisions. Practice making the right choices, this practice will eventually turn into a habit. Make decisions that don’t cause harm to yourself or others. Lastly everything in moderation is a good rule to live by. This I believe will go a long way in helping human beings to achieve happiness. POWERED BY TCPDF (WWW. TCPDF. ORG).

Edgar Allan Poe Exposed in The Fall Of The House Of Usher Essay

Edgar Allan Poe Exposed in â€Å"The Fall Of The House Of Usher† Edgar Allan Poe was a unique man that most people could not understand. Many recognize that he is a talented writer with a very strange and dark style. One of his most well known short stories is â€Å"The Fall Of The House Of Usher.† Many argue the different meanings of this story and how it is symbolic to his life. Poe was a very confused individual who needed to express himself, he accomplished this through the short story of â€Å"The Fall Of The House Of Usher.† Through this story, Edgar was trying to show the fear he had for him self, he did not understand him self so therefore Poe ran from his own personality and mind. This story enables the reader to take a look at Poe’s mind and reveals some of the details that led him into his own insanity. Almost everyone goes through different fazes in their lives where they are trying to find their true self. Some may be happy and content with who they are where as others are scarred and frightened at the human beings they have become. Edgar finally came to a point in his life where he needed to step back and examine himself. The method that he chose was to look into the depths of his own mind. There are many things for which he needed to come to terms with, in a sense he had grown apart from himself and needed to find out who he really was. The story of â€Å"The Fall Of The House Of Usher† is the story of Edgar Allan Poe taking a journey into his own mind in search of who he had become. Upon reaching the house of Usher he has come to the outer shell of his own mind, it is not clear what is wrong but Poe is certain that there is something off set and out of place. He cannot quite put his finger on it but it is there never the less. â€Å"What was it-I paused to think-what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher† (234). Before Poe truly finds what he is looking for, he knows that there is something wrong within himself. Even the setting of this story describes Poe’s personality and outlook on life. Poe first realizes in his journey that he is alone with no one to turn to except his very own mind. â€Å"When the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, through a singularly dreary tract of country and at length found myself within view of the melancholy House of Usher† (234). In the end, this fact of his life coul... ...not want to see any more and runs away from the house of Usher. By doing this he is running from himself and his very own mind. This is the final trigger, which causes Poe to comprehend his insanity. He runs away from his mind and does not want to accept it but he can do nothing about it. By this realization his mind falls apart and Edgar has reached the height of his insanity. Through the short story of â€Å"The Fall Of The House Of Usher† Poe did a phenomenal job of expressing himself and of revealing his own insanity. Poe had an idea of what he was becoming but after he did examine himself he was very frightened and he knew the only thing to do was to run. But for whom did he have to run to? Poe was well known and well respected but he did not have anyone to turn to. When Edgar runs from the house of Usher he is also running from his very own mind but where is he running? What is beyond the house of Usher? The only thing that is beyond the house of Usher is his own mind. The house crumbled and Poe cracked. He ran but the only place he found to confide in was him self. Edgar Allan Poe was scarred and needed help but there was no one, in the end Poe fueled his very own insanity.

The Role of Women in Perfume and the Assault

The Role of Women in Perfume and The Assault In most cases, women are portrayed either as mother, lovers or people that fulfill men’s sexual needs. Both Perfume by Patrick Suskind and The Assault by Harry Mulisch is no exception. However, the reader might notice that in both novels women are portrayed in a flat, two-dimensional way and yet, paradoxically, have a significant symbolic value. The women of these novels seem to project the protagonists’ needs for these kinds of love and without them the novel would not exist. Therefore, they are not important for who they are, but rather for what they represent- the maternal and sexual love for men. In The Assault, Anton’s mother barely appears in the novel and yet we can notice how her subtly strong character had left a mark on Anton’s life. Her importance lays in what she represents in his childhood memory- a strong woman who is the core of the family. â€Å" †¦ She had a cavity in her tooth that could not be treated just then; to relieve the pain she had found a leftover clove in the kitchen to put on the sore spot, just as her mother and grandmother used to do. She sat up straight, but her husband across the table was bent over, reading a book. † (Mulish,10) Though this is a little detail that Mulisch had added, it characterizes her by inferring that she was strong. A contributing factor could be the setting of the novel. They were in time of war and the circumstances force her to be strong. We can also see a contrast between the mother and the father, the father was bending while she was sitting straight up. This infers that she was the more dominant figure. Therefore, even though Anton had lost both parents. The reader notices that Anton later on seeks Truus and Saskia to replace her, but does not search for anyone to replace his father. Truus who is also barely appears in the novel is a proof of how Anton never fully recovered of losing his mother. She was present in a time where he needed her affection. However, she is like a bridge to Anton between maternal and sexual love. â€Å"He touched her fingers; she took hold of his hand and pulled him close. On the cot she embraced him with one arm and with her other hand pressed his head against her breast. She smelled of sweat but also of something sweetish that he couldn’t identify. Perhaps it was perfume. † (Mulish, 32). Though she represents security and love like his mother did to him. The word choice by Mulisch insinuates Anton’s sexual awakening. The fact that they are on a ‘cot’ or a bed highlights the intimacy. She embraced him like a mother would embrace her child, however the focus on her ‘breasts’ arouses sexual feelings in Anton which he will realize later on in his life. Moreover, in the absence of light and presence of complete darkness, Anton cannot use his sight that is where the tactile and olfactory sense becomes heightened. This causes the scene to be more intense in the reader’s head. Saskia who is Anton’s first wife is also a two dimensional character in the book that is only present as Anton’s image of Truss. When Anton grows up he realizes that Truus was more than a mother figure to him. â€Å"There was nothing wrong with Saskia’s looking like the idea of Truus. Truus had under these circumstances, aroused an image in his mind to which Saskia seemed to respond, and that was fine, for it was not Truus’s image, but his own, and where it came from was unimportant†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Mulish, 131) The use of the word ‘aroused’ has a sexual connotation which came from the fact he felt intimacy in the dark and as a young boy, though unconsciously this intimacy aroused something inside him. Truus became like a fantasy of love that he perused. Saskia represents that love that he needed. Moreover, the addition of ‘under the circumstances’ insinuates that at the previous moment Anton needed certain affection which was in a form of a mother. However, now he needs it in a non-platonic form. This is where it shows that Anton never wholly recovered from losing his mother. As Sigmund Freud’s theory suggests, a man unconsciously marries a mother figure. Therefore, since Truus seemed to represent a mother figure and Saskia is his image of Truus, the mother figure in this novel is linked with romantic interest. Due to all the events that had happened to Anton, the woman he encounters in the dark (Truus) embodies his need for courageous, maternal and erotic love. This makes the two dimensional character Saskia, a symbol for his erotic desire. Anton in this passage is trying to reassure himself that where Saskia’s image came from is ‘unimportant’, however later on the readers realize that it actually does matter to him as they get divorced. Similarly to The Assault, the women in Perfume are portrayed very superficially and like Sasika, they represent erotic love. Although Grenouille seems uninterested in sex, there are many sexual parallels. In passages where Grenouille smells the women, Suskind describes it very sexually. â€Å"†¦ he (Grenouille) tore off her dress, and the stream of scent became a flood that inundated him its fragrance. He thrust his face to her skin and wept his flared nostrils across her, from belly to breast, to neck, over her face and hair.. †¦ down her genitals, to her thighs and white legs. † (Suskind, 45). Suskind uses imagery to form an image the reader’s mind. Like Mulisch did in the scene where Anton meets Truus, Suskind highlights the olfactory sense rather than others. This makes us smell the women and almost feel Grenouille’s sensation. He describes the power of the scent as a flood of water that moves towards Grenouille and floods him. He is completely taken over by it as if it were sexual feelings. However, he has no interest in the girl herself, but rather what she possesses. Here is where he parallels to Anton, who is not interested in whom Truus was but in what she represents to him. Stripping the females from their scent degrades them and reveals how Grenouille, like Anton, extracts what he needs of the woman and forgets about her as a whole. The remains of the females, which are their individualities, are forgotten like dead flower petals. â€Å"They lay on the surface for a moment, like eyes facing instant death, and lost all the color the moment the spatula pushed them down into the warm, oily embrace. †¦And it was not that the dead blossoms continued to give off scent there in the oil – no, the oil itself had appropriated the scent of the blossoms. † (Suskind, 181). This is the processes that Grenouille uses to steal scents from girls. Therefore, the blossoms here are a metaphor for the girls. This insinuates that they are only important for their scent which pleases Grenouille. The rest of the girl, which is her personality and her individuality all lies insignificantly on the surface ‘like eyes facing instant death’. Suskind continues to say how the blossoms had lost their color the moment Grenouille pushed the spatula. Sine color is what makes them beautiful it is insinuated that when Grenouille steals their scents, they are no longer beautiful for their inner selves. This makes Grenouille selfish. Anton and him extract what they need from the women and forget about her a whole. They do this to replace love that they were deprived of in their childhood. Like Anton Grenouille is deprived of his mother’s love and losing her has had a crucial impact on him. Since there is a thin line between different kinds of love, Grenouille, who is missing maternal love projects his needs in a sexual way. HE steals the essence of women for his own personal pleasure. â€Å"They lay on the surface for a moment, like eyes facing instant death, and lost all the color the moment the spatula pushed them down into the warm, oily embrace. And it was not that the dead blossoms continued to give off scent there in the oil – no, the oil itself had appropriated the scent of the blossoms. †(Suskind, 181) The use of specific time emphasizes the extent of Grenouille’s love- with the scent. Smell is always a strong sense that people associate with people they care for. It is intimate. Therefore it seems like non-platonic love. Moreover, the fact that Suskind writ es that Grenouille is not in love with the girl, but the scent emphasizes how Grenouille, like Anton uses women to project his needs. In conclusion, both Mulisch and Suskind do not show any effort in making the reader know the female characters deeply. Some women even remain unnamed for the whole novel! However, their presence is extremely crucial for the protagonists. Women are a projection of men’s needs. Some people may be offended when noticing such aspects of the portrayal of women in these two novels. There are two interpretations to why the authors portrayed the women that way. They could be either critiquing society for objectifying women or this portrayal reflects the authors’ own opinions

The Downtown Renovation Of Fort Wayne - 1263 Words

I was watching TV and I saw a commercial about the downtown renovations in Fort Wayne. This caught my attention because the commercial did not go into detail about what exactly the renovations will look like. It made me curious as to what aspects of downtown will be changed, how they will go about renovating, and the timeframe and budget involved with these renovations. What do you know about this topic that makes it relevant to you? I have lived near Fort Wayne for most of my life, and just recently moved into Fort Wayne. Over the last year I have noticed an annoying amount of construction taking place in the downtown area. I did know the reason behind the construction until I saw the commercial about the downtown renovations. I have always liked the city of Fort Wayne and I think it is exciting that it is being renovated and improved. I am not sure what exactly the renovations entail, but I am glad that Fort Wayne is being rebranded. I do know that it is becoming more common for Midwest cities to reconstruct in order to help grow and avoid becoming obsolete. How do you encounter this topic in your current life? Since I am now a resident of the city of Fort Wayne, the renovations will directly impact my life. Being a resident, a will have to navigate through the construction from the renovations. After they are complete, I will have a first-hand view of the new Fort Wayne. What makes you curious about this topic? I personally was confused the first time I found outShow MoreRelatedProject Managment Case Studies214937 Words   |  860 Pageswork. BACKGROUND Between 1978 and 1988, Mohawk National matured into one of Maine s largest full-service banks, employing a full-time staff of some 1,200 employees. Of the 1,200 employees, approximately 700 were located in the main offices in downtown Augusta. Mohawk matured along with other banks in the establishment of computerized information processing and decision-making. Mohawk leased the most upto-date computer equipment in order to satisfy customer demands. By 1984, almost all departmentsRead MoreMarketing Mistakes and Successes175322 Words   |  702 PagesGreg M. Allenby, Ohio State University; Annette Fortia, Old Westbury; Bruce Ryan, Loyola; Jennifer Barr, Stockton College; Dale Van Cantfort, Piedmont University; Larry Goldstein, Iona University; Duane Prokop, Gannon University; Jeff Stoltman, Wayne State University; Nevena Koukova, Lehigh University; Matthew R. Hartley, University of California, Berkeley; Cindy Claycomb, Wichita State University; Pola Gupta, Wright State University; Joan Lindsey-Mullikin, Babson College. Also: Barnett HelzbergRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesUniversity David Cherrington, Brigham Young University John Collins, Syracuse University Kerri Crowne, Temple University Todd Dewett, Wright State University Andrew J. Dubrin, Rochester Institute of Technology Steven Edelson, Temple University Norma Givens, Fort Valley State University Barbara A. Gorski, St. Thomas University David Hampton, San Diego State University Stanley Harris, Auburn University Richard E. Hunt, Rockhurst College Daniel F. Jennings, Baylor University Avis L. Johnson, University of AkronRead MoreDamodaran Book on Investment Valuation, 2nd Edition398423 Words   |  1594 Pagesvery frequently, though similar properties might. Consequently, price indices are available for classes of assets (Example: Downtown Manhattan Office Buildings) and risk parameters can be estimated for these classes. Even when price indices are available for classes of real estate investments, questio ns remain about the comparability of assets within a class (Is one downtown building the same as any other? How does one control for differences in age and quality of construction? What about location