VIRTUE
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What do you think virtue is? Is it even something we need? Do you believe that virtue is something worth striving for? DO you agree with Aristotle’s conception of what virtue is, or do you think it is something else?
Virtue is a trait, a quality, an attribute, and a characteristic that helps the person who possesses it to live a virtuous life. A virtuous life is a life full of meaning, happiness, and joy. Virtue is honesty, accountability, and fidelity not because they are natural, but because they are hard. Virtue is sacrifice and self-control. Virtue means knowing the right thing to do and doing it every time (Gellera, 2017). Virtue amounts to hundreds of small, right decisions built up over time that make one a good person. It only takes one wrong action to ruin a life and a hundred good ones to construct it back up. This is a virtue.
It depends on what you mean by virtue. In Aristotelian Virtue Ethics, virtue is defined as ‘excellence’ (Gellera, 2017). The mean between two excesses could determine virtue, so bravery is the mean between insolence and cowardice. In this sense, virtue is moderation. Now, I do not know about you, but the idea that one must consistently find the mean between two excesses to respond virtuously to a situation is a bit exhausting. In my opinion, virtue is an important thing to strive for, but not the most important thing to attain. As human beings, we are far too flawed to exist virtuously indeed, but the pursuit of virtue. Moderation and measurement is something that we could all benefit from. People, relationships, and communities function about their virtue and are dysfunctional to the extent that they do not (Gellera, 2017). It is the difference between failing, surviving, and thriving. It truly does make all the difference.
Reference
Gellera, G. (2017). An Analysis of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. CRC Press.