Virtue, the Mean, and Practical Wisdom

Virtue -Greek word ‘arête’; which means excellence

-one can be said excellent if he does what it supposed to do in the best way possible
-being virtuous is actualizing one’s potentiality in the most excellent way

Aristotle’s definition of virtue

Virtue, therefore, is a characteristic marked by choice, residing in the mean relative to us, a characteristic
defined by reason and as the prudent person would define it. Virtue is also a mean with respect to two
vices, the one vice related to excess, the other to deficiency; and further, it is a mean because some vices
fall short of and others exceed what should be the case in both passions and actions, whereas virtue
discovers and chooses the middle term. Thus, with respect to its being and the definition that states what
it is, virtue is a mean; but with respect to what is best and the doing of something well, it is an extreme.

For Aristotle, therefore, VIRTUE IS A STATE OF ONE’S CHARACTER THAT IS THE RESULT OF CHOICE.

Two kinds of virtues according to Aristotle

Moral Virtue

 excellence in the performance of decisions relating to moral and practical activity

 arises from habitual practice (ethos)

 none of the moral virtues are present in us by nature, since nothing that exists by nature is
habituated to be other than it is

 PRACTICE and HABIT as the ground of moral virtue

 Aristotle declares that we become morally virtuous by doing morally virtuous acts

 to be morally virtuous, one must be able to respond to situations not just with the correct
feeling or action but in the proper degree, at the right time, towards the right people, and
for the right reasons

 according to Aristotle, are the states of character that enable a person to fulfill his/her
proper function as a human being

“CONSISTENCY IS NOT STAGNANCY.”

-Aristotle emphasizes a certain consistency or constancy in one’s character in facing different situations

-this does not mean that a virtuous person is incapable of adjusting to various situations because it is the
person’s capacity to read situations that makes him/her virtuous
Mean (mesotes)

-not a mathematical mean but an intermediary point between excess and deficiency

-not a fixed point but rather a moving target

- considered as the appropriate response to the demands of different situations

Intellectual Virtue

 one’s capacity to harness reason’s contemplative capacity for arriving at knowledge

 owes its existence and development to teaching

 both the coming-into-being and increase of intellectual virtue result mostly from teaching,
hence it requires experience and time

Practical Wisdom (phrónēsis)

 human person’s instrument in dealing with moral choices

 knowledge that deals with practical matters and not just with ideas or concepts

 intellectual virtue responsible for bringing the human person closer to his/her chief good in
the realm or morality

 comprised both of knowledge and action

 guides the human person in choosing the mean between extremes of excess and deficiency
Since the mean is a moving target, phronesis is necessary in skillfully making the right decision. To
choose either an excess or deficiency constitutes a vice for Aristotle.

Hence, it may be said that if mesotes is a moving target, phrónēsis would correspond to the excellence
of an archer in hitting this target in various situations.

A truly virtuous action is performed by someone who is not simply compelled to do so. A person does a
virtuous act and chooses to act in such a way for the sake of being virtuous. This choice comes from a
certain firmness of character that is not easily swayed by one’s passions or influenced by certain factors
in a given situation. To a certain degree vices are no longer an option for a truly virtuous person.

It should be noted that certain actions admit no middle-point or mesotes. Some actions are simply bad,
and so there is no “virtuous” way of performing them.