Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · -340
"The right way to live isn't defined by following rules or calculating outcomes, but by cultivating virtues — stable character traits, each a mean between two vices of excess and deficiency — through repeated practice, until acting well becomes second nature."
Aristotle's approach to ethics starts from a different question than Mill's or Kant's: not what makes a single action right, but what makes a person good, on the theory that a genuinely virtuous person will reliably do the right thing without needing to run a calculation or consult a rule each time. His central mechanism is the doctrine of the mean: every virtue sits between two failure modes, an excess and a deficiency — courage, for instance, is the mean between cowardice, a deficiency of courage, and recklessness, an excess of courage, and it takes practical wisdom to judge where that mean actually falls in a specific situation.
Virtues, for Aristotle, are not innate traits or beliefs you simply hold; they're habits built through repeated action, the same way you become a skilled craftsman by practicing the craft rather than by reading about it. You become courageous by repeatedly doing courageous acts until courage becomes your disposition, not by deciding once to be brave. The ultimate goal of this practice is eudaimonia, usually translated as flourishing or living well, which for Aristotle isn't a feeling but an activity: living and acting in accordance with virtue over a complete life.
According to Aristotle, how does a person become virtuous?
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The explanation above is written with AI assistance. These are the originals — go to them to check it.
- Nicomachean Ethics (full text)Project Gutenberg
- Aristotle's EthicsStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Utilitarianism
"The right action is whichever produces the greatest net happiness for the greatest number of people affected — an act is judged entirely by its consequences, not by the intentions behind it or any rule it follows."