Nicomachean Ethics · Chapter
Book II explained
Aristotle distinguishes moral virtue from intellectual virtue, arguing that moral virtue is acquired through habit and practice rather than nature.
What happens
Aristotle distinguishes moral virtue from intellectual virtue, arguing that moral virtue is acquired through habit and practice rather than nature. He emphasizes that virtues are developed by performing virtuous acts, and that virtue involves finding the mean between excess and deficiency in actions and passions. The chapter also discusses the role of pleasure and pain in moral development, and provides a preliminary table of specific virtues and their corresponding vices.
Themes in this chapter
Virtue and Character
Central theme: moral virtue is acquired through habitual action, and character is formed by repeatedly doing virtuous acts.
The Golden Mean
Introduced and elaborated: virtue is a mean between two vices, one of excess and one of deficiency.
Pleasure and Pain
Discussed as key factors in moral development; virtue is concerned with feeling pleasure and pain rightly.
Characters to notice
- Aristotle
Primary author and expositor of the arguments on moral virtue, habit, and the doctrine of the mean.
- Heraclitus
Cited for the saying that fighting with wrath is hard, used to illustrate that fighting with pleasure is harder.
Key passages
“the virtues we acquire by doing the acts, as is the case with the arts too. We learn an art by doing that which we wish to do when we have learned it; we become builders by building, and harpers by harping. And so by doing just acts we become just, and by doing acts of temperance and courage we become temperate and courageous.”
We develop virtues by practicing them, just as we learn a craft by doing it: building makes us builders, and just actions make us just.
Key argument that moral virtue is acquired through habituation, not innate.
“virtue is a moderation or middle state, but viewed in its relation to what is best and right it is the extreme of perfection.”
Virtue is a mean between extremes, yet in terms of excellence it is an extreme of perfection.
Definition of virtue as the golden mean, balancing excess and deficiency.
“to fight with pleasure is harder than to fight with wrath (which Heraclitus says is hard), and virtue, like art, is always more concerned with what is harder; for the harder the task the better is success.”
Resisting pleasure is more difficult than resisting anger, and virtue, like skill, deals with harder challenges because greater difficulty leads to greater success.
Illustrates the importance of mastering pleasure in moral development.