If in all our activities there is some end we seek for its own sake, and
if everything else is a same means to this same ends, it abviously will
be our highest and best end. Clearly there must be some such end since
everything cannot be a means to something else since then there would be
nothing for which we ultimately do anything and everything would be pointless......
Now happiness seems more
than anything else to answer to this description. For happiness is something
we always choose for its own sake and never as a means to something else.
But fame, pleasure,......and so on, are chosen partly for themselves but
partly also as a means to happiness, since we believe that they will bring
us happiness. Only happiness, then, is never chosen for the sake of these
things or as a means to any other thing......
So it appears that happiness
is the ultimate end and completely sufficient by itself. It is the end
we seek in all that we do.
The reader may think that
in saying that happiness is our ultimate end we are merely stating a platitude.
So we must be more precise about what happiness involves.
Perhaps the best approach
is to ask what the specific purpose or function of man is. For the good
and the excellence of all things that have a purpose -- such as musicians,
sculptors, or craftsman -- depend on their purpose. So if man has a purpose,
his good will be related to this purpose.
Our biological activities
we share in common even with plants, so these activities cannot be the
purpose or function of man since we are looking for something specific
to man. The activities of our sense we also plainly share with other things:
horse, cattle, and other animals. So there remain only the activities that
belong to the rational part of man......So the specific purpose or function
of man involves the activities of that part of his soul that belongs to
reason, or that at least is obedient to reason......
Now the function of a thing
is the basis [of its goodness], but its good is something added to this
function. For example, the function of a musician is to play music, and
the good musician is one who not only plays music but in addition does
it well. So, the good for man would have to be something added to this
function of carrying on the activities of reason; it would be carrying
on the activities of reason but doing so well. But a thing carries out
its proper functions well when it has a proper virtues. So the [ultimate]
good for man is carrying out those activities of his soul [which involves
reason] and doing so with the proper virtues or excellence.
Consider that the expert
in any field as the one who avoids what is excessive as well as what is
deficient. Instead he seeks to hit the mean and chosen it......Acting well
in any field is achieved by looking to the mean and bringing one's actions
into line with the standard of moderation. For example, people say of a
good work of art that nothing could be taken from it or added to it, implying
that excellence is destroyed through excess or deficiency but achieved
by observing the mean. The good artist, in fact, keeps his eyes fixed on
the mean in everything he does......
Virtue, therefore, must
also aim at the mean. For human virtue deals with our feelings and actions,
and in these we can go to excess or fall short or we can hit the mean.
For example, it is impossible to feel fear, confidence, desire, anger,
pity, pleasure,......and so on, either too much or too little -- both of
which extremes are bad. But to feel this at the right times, and on the
right occasions, and toward the right person, and with the right object,
and in the right fashion, is the mean between the extremes and is the best
state, and is the mark of virtue. In the same way, our actions can also
be excessive or can fall short or can hit the mean.
Virtue, then, deals with
those feelings and actions in which it is wrong to go too far and wrong
to fall short but in which hitting the mean is praiseworthy and good......It
is a habit or acquire ability to choose......what is moderate or what hits
the mean as determined by reason.
But it is not enough to
speak in generalities. We must also apply this to particular virtues and
vices. Consider, then, the following examples.
Take the feeling of fear
and confidence. To be able to hit the mean [by having just enough fear
and just enough confidence] is to have the virtue of courage......But he
who exceeds in confidence has the vice of recklessness, while he who has
too much fear and not enough confidence has the vice of cowardliness.
The mean where pleasure......is
concerned is achieved by the virtue of temperance. But to go to excess
is to have the vice of self-indulgence, while to fall short is to have
the vice of being austere......
Or take the action of giving
or receiving money. Here the mean is the virtue of generosity......But
the man who gives to excess and is deficient in receiving has the vice
of prodigality, while the man who is deficient in giving and excessive
in taking has the vice of stinginess......
Or take one's feeling about
the opinion of others. Here the mean is the virtue of proper self-respect,
while the excess is the view of vanity, and the deficiency is the vice
of small-mindedness......
The feeling of anger can
also be excessive, deficient, or moderate. The man who occupies the middle
state is said to have the virtue of being even-tempered, while the one
who exceeds in anger has the vice of being bad-tempered, while the one
who is deficient in anger has the vice of being apathetic.
As is the case with any
skill, we acquire the virtues by first doing virtuous acts. We acquire
a skill by practicing the activities involved in the skill. For example,
we become builders by building, and we learn to play the harp by playing
the harp. In the same way, we become just by doing just acts, temperate
by doing temperate acts, and courageous by doing acts of courage......
Both the moral virtues and
the corresponding vices are developed or destroyed by similar kinds of
actions, as is the case with all skills. It is by playing the harp that
both good and bad harp players are produced; [good players by repeatedly
playing well, poor players by repeatedly playing poorly]. And the same
is true of builders and all the rest: by building well they develop into
good builders, and building badly into bad builders. In fact, if this were
not not so they would not need a teacher and everyone would be born either
good or bad at their trade. Te same holds for the virtues. By what we do
in our interactions with others we will develop into just person or into
unjust ones; and by the way we respond to dangers, training ourselves to
respond with fear or with confidence, we will become either cowardly or
courageous. The same can be said of our appetites and feeling of anger:
By responding in one way or another to these we will become either temperate
and even-tempered or self-indulgent and ill-tempered. In short, acts of
one kind produce character traits of the same kind. This is why we should
make sure that our actions are of the proper kind: for our character will
correspond to how we act. It makes no small difference, then, whether a
person is trained in one way or another from his youth; it makes a very
great difference, in fact, all the difference.
Not only are character traits
developed and destroyed in the same way, they also manifest themselves
in similar ways. This is something we can actually see with strength. Strength
is produced by taking plenty of nourishment and doing plenty of exercise,
and it is the man with strength, in turn, that is best able to do these
things. It is the same with the virtues. By abstaining from pleasure we
develop temperance, and it is the man with temperance that is best able
to abstain from them. The same holds for courage: by habituating ourselves
to disregard danger and to face it, we become courageous, and it is when
we have become courageous that we are best able to face danger.
A test of the presence of
a certain character trait is the pleasure or pain that accompanies our
actions. The person who abstains from bodily pleasure and feels pleased
at this, is temperate, while the person who feels pain at having to abstain
is self-indulgent. And the person who stands his ground against fearful
things and takes pleasure in this or at least is not pained, is courageous,
while the man for whom which is painful is a coward.
Quote from, Philosophy, A text with readings,
5th ed by Velasquez Pg.465-468
Dennis Yap Tsong Hsih
