Moral virtue is the creation of good moral character — "... the habit of choosing rightly between goods of lasting importance and transient pleasures and pains." (Reference 1, p 104)
Three of the moral virtues are temperance, courage and justice.
Temperance in pursuit of values of the body,Courage to do what needs to be done regardless of how bothersome or fearful it is, to "… undertake the difficulty of looking ahead to one's life as a whole …" and making the right choices in the context of our lives.Justice to treat others justly with the expectation that they will treat us justly in return. This is possible in the context of a society of law that protects our lives and property from violence and fraud.
Soul values are knowledge, skills of thinking, building, loving, friends, appreciation of art, self-esteem and honor.
Socrates said the the unexamined life is not worth living, Aristotle said the unplanned life is not worth examining. Hence the unplanned life is not worth living.
A plan of life is a plan to obtain the real goods of the body, mind and character. Since we are all human beings, by our nature the same values are good for all of us.
References:
1. Mortimer J. Adler, "Part 3, Man the Doer," in Aristotle for Everybody Difficult Thought Made Easy, (A TOUCHSTONE BOOK Published by Simon & Schuster Inc., 1978
2. Mortimer J. Adler, http://www.thegreatideas.org/apd-happ.html, "Happiness
Words that are generally misused in everyday speech are like most of the words that the philosopher cannot avoid using because they name great ideas or aspects of them. In some case another word might be introduced to remedy the ambiguity, The word "happiness" is a prime example.
There is, on the one hand, the purely psychological meaning of "happiness" when that word is used to refer to the satisfaction or contentment an individual feels in getting what is wanted. In this meaning, one can feel happy one day and not happy the next day, but in either meaning, the individual is reporting an experienced subjective feeling. The primary point to remember here is that, in their psychological meanings, happiness and unhappiness are experienceable feelings. That is not the case when we come to the ethical or moral meaning of the word.
In its ethical or moral meaning, the word "happiness" refers to a life well lived, a whole life that is morally good because it is the product of virtue (or the habit of right desire) accompanied by the blessing of good fortune.
In this sense of the word, happiness is not something we feel or experience. In no moment of period of time can happiness in this sense be felt or experienced. During one's life, one may be on the road to happiness, one may be described as becoming happy, but one cannot be said to be happy. Only when your life is over can someone else commenting on your life declare that you had lived a good life and can be described as a person who hadachieved happiness.
Happiness in heaven and out of time is experienced in eternity and is experienced by those who enjoy the beatific vision. (In regard to this meaning, see Beatitude, http://www.thegreatideas.org/apd-beat.html.)"
Words that are generally misused in everyday speech are like most of the words that the philosopher cannot avoid using because they name great ideas or aspects of them. In some case another word might be introduced to remedy the ambiguity, The word "happiness" is a prime example.
There is, on the one hand, the purely psychological meaning of "happiness" when that word is used to refer to the satisfaction or contentment an individual feels in getting what is wanted. In this meaning, one can feel happy one day and not happy the next day, but in either meaning, the individual is reporting an experienced subjective feeling. The primary point to remember here is that, in their psychological meanings, happiness and unhappiness are experienceable feelings. That is not the case when we come to the ethical or moral meaning of the word.
In its ethical or moral meaning, the word "happiness" refers to a life well lived, a whole life that is morally good because it is the product of virtue (or the habit of right desire) accompanied by the blessing of good fortune.
In this sense of the word, happiness is not something we feel or experience. In no moment of period of time can happiness in this sense be felt or experienced. During one's life, one may be on the road to happiness, one may be described as becoming happy, but one cannot be said to be happy. Only when your life is over can someone else commenting on your life declare that you had lived a good life and can be described as a person who hadachieved happiness.
Happiness in heaven and out of time is experienced in eternity and is experienced by those who enjoy the beatific vision. (In regard to this meaning, see Beatitude, http://www.thegreatideas.org/apd-beat.html.)"
But neither life nor happiness can be achieved by the pursuit of irrational whims. Just as man is free to attempt to survive in any random manner, but will perish unless he lives as his nature requires, so he is free to seek his happiness in any mindless fraud, but the torture of frustration is all he will find, unless he seeks the happiness proper to man. The purpose of morality is to teach you, not to suffer and die, but to enjoy yourself and live."
1 comment:
Ayn Rand
A moral code is a set of abstract principles; to practice it, an individual must translate it into the appropriate concretes—he must choose the particular goals and values which he is to pursue. This requires that he define his particular hierarchy of values, in the order of their importance, and that he act accordingly. | Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology
Post a Comment