What does Plato say about virtue?

What does Plato say about virtue?

Like most other ancient philosophers, Plato maintains a virtue-based eudaemonistic conception of ethics. That is to say, happiness or well-being (eudaimonia) is the highest aim of moral thought and conduct, and the virtues (aretê: ‘excellence’) are the requisite skills and dispositions needed to attain it.

What did Plato say about politics?

Plato believes that conflicting interests of different parts of society can be harmonized. The best, rational and righteous, political order, which he proposes, leads to a harmonious unity of society and allows each of its parts to flourish, but not at the expense of others.

What did Aristotle believe about the virtues?

Aristotle defines moral virtue as a disposition to behave in the right manner and as a mean between extremes of deficiency and excess, which are vices. We learn moral virtue primarily through habit and practice rather than through reasoning and instruction.

How does Aristotle’s view of virtue of good life differ from that of Plato’s view?

Plato stated that virtue was sufficient for happiness, that there was no such thing as “moral luck” to grant rewards. Aristotle believed that virtue was necessary for happiness, but insufficient by itself, needing adequate social constructs to help a virtuous person feel satisfaction and contentment.

Why does Aristotle think virtues are necessary to be happy?

“Happiness depends on ourselves.” More than anybody else, Aristotle enshrines happiness as a central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. Essentially, Aristotle argues that virtue is achieved by maintaining the Mean, which is the balance between two excesses.

What is the difference between Plato’s and Aristotle’s view of ethics?

In regard to the differences in Plato and Aristotle s view of ethics, two things are obvious: (1) they seem to arrive at similar conclusions on many topics by what appears to be different means and (2) Plato seems more concerned with virtue in action, while Aristotle is more concerned with providing the dictionary definition of virtue.

What is virtue according to Aristotle?

One way in which Aristotle refers to virtue is as the potential excellence of an individual, which seems to indicate what Plato meant. For it is this “excellence” that Plato’s individual strives to achieve in order to attain happiness. Likewise, it is from the soul (i.e. daimon) where this excellence comes from in both cases.

Does Plato believe that knowledge is virtue?

Contrary to the popularly-held interpretation that Plato believes virtue is knowledge, it appears that he believes knowledge is a virtue but not that knowledge is Virtue itself. Plato and Aristotle both seem to hold that one’s innate potentiality (i.e. daimon) is virtue and even in this respect, it is virtue only for that particular individual.

What are the 5 cardinal virtues according to Plato?

So it has been shown that Plato recommends five cardinal virtues for the living of a moral life which are those of: wisdom, courage, temperance, justice, and integrity. Aristotle appears to agree with this and expresses that these virtues as well as all other virtues exist in different measures in each individual.