What is Virtue Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

What is Virtue - Essay Example The Meno asserts that virtues share a unit form, compelling individuals to work towards a specific goal: the wellbeing of the individual and the city (72c7, 72d8, and 72e5). Subsequently, the Meno attributes an excellent person as one characterized by the virtue of doing noble deeds. The Meno attributes noble deeds as activities meant to do good to the individual himself and the city. This stipulates that an excellent person is one who would chooses the noble over the ignoble, even though it entails sacrificing his will for what is ideally good and benefits the greater society. Virtues are evidenced by an individual’s ability to sacrifice for the greater good (77b2-b5). Additionally, Meno agrees with Socrates that virtue is prudence and knowledge. He affirms that an excellent person is one who has the knowledge and can tell apart what is right from what is wrong. Consequently, an excellent person is one who is prudent, exhibiting caution in his activities (89a3-5, c2-4). Aristotle defines a virtue as a mean. He outlines that an excellent person is characterized by the ability to steer between two extreme points. Aristotle asserts that the ability to arrive at the mean is pleasant for any excellent person and it is not aimed at causing him pain (1120a27-28). He attributes this mean as an attribute of an excellent person who depicts courage by avoiding too fearful and consequently not engaging in fearful events. He attributes an excellent person as one who maintains his temper by not being extremely angry, but getting angry enough (1106a26-28 and 1106b20). In conjunction, Aristotle documents that the goals of a person’s behavior are for either his own good or the greater good depending on the circumstance that the individual was faced with. Activities, which their goodness depends upon circumstances (external goods), are stipulated by Aristotle as wealth, friendship, strength, honor,