Is virtue always lies at the middle of two extremes?

The important lesson to draw from Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Mean is that virtue consists of finding an appropriate middle ground between two extremes. As such, each virtue has not one opposite but two. The opposite of courage is both cowardice and rashness, for example.

Do you agree with Aristotle that virtue is a mean between two extremes?

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. A virtuous person exhibits all of the virtues: they do not properly exist as distinct qualities but rather as different aspects of a virtuous life.

What does it mean virtue lies in the middle?

The sentence is a translation of a saying/phrase in Spanish (my native language) which goes like this: “En el medio está la virtud” and which means something like: The extremes are always bad, there is no such thing as good or bad in essence, anything can be good or bad depending on the amount of it…

Are virtues the middle ground between two extremes or vices as Aristotle argues in his golden mean?

Aristotle argued that all virtue in life is achieved by “maintaining the Golden Mean”. This means that, in order to find happiness, people should always strive for a balance between 2 extremes. He has learnt to find a balance between these two extremes.

What does it mean to say that virtue is the mean for Aristotle?

What does Aristotle mean when he says that virtue is a mean between two extremes? Virtue is the mean because “the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate.”

How does virtue lead to a good life?

It allows the person not only to perform good acts, but to give the best himself. Aristotle conceived of virtues as those qualities the possession of which enabled an individual to achieve happiness that led to good life and the lack of which frustrated the person’s movement towards this ultimate good.

Why is virtue ethics the best?

Virtue ethics allows people to maintain personal and interpersonal connections important for the good life. Virtue ethics does not fall victim to moral schizophrenia, which is one advantage it has over most other moral theories.

Why is virtue a mean between two vices?

Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which depends on defect; and again it is a mean because the vices respectively fall short of or exceed what is right in both passions and actions, while virtue both finds and chooses that which is intermediate.

What is the difference between intellectual and moral virtue according to Aristotle?

Aristotle makes a distinction between intellectual virtue and moral virtue. Moral virtue is formed by habit; one becomes good by doing good. Intellectual virtue, one the other hand, requires intelligence and is acquired by teaching. Virtuous actions are ones that lie between two extremes — excess and deficiency.

What is the difference between Virtue and defect?

Now virtue is concerned with passions and actions, in which excess is a form of failure, and so is defect, while the intermediate is praised and is a form of success; and being praised and being successful are both characteristics of virtue.

What is the relationship between Virtue and happiness?

Virtuous activity makes a life happy not by guaranteeing happiness in all circumstances, but by serving as the goal for the sake of which lesser goods are to be pursued. Aristotle’s methodology in ethics therefore pays more attention than does Plato’s to the connections that normally obtain between virtue and other goods.