Virtue and Utility Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Virtue and avail - Essay ExampleAristotles and Mills philosophies sh be equivalentities in terms of application, the greatest easily and the require workforcet for enjoyment and they differ when it comes to how happiness can be exactly attained. The philosophies of Aristotle and Mill are similar in that the reasonedness or wrongness of an action depends on the situation or on the outer circumstances. For Aristotles virtue morals, the basis of moral virtues is action and that we learn by doing them (Nicomachean Ethics II.1). This means that virtues are never inborn in man except that we first acquire the potentiality of doing these virtuous acts (II.1). However, notwithstanding this potentiality, there is a need for action. For Aristotle, therefore, one is never a life-threatening man unless he does good deeds. Nobody is born good one has to do good in order to be c bothed good. The classical philosopher gives an example in the Ethics when he says, By doing the acts we do in our transactions with other men we become undecomposed or unjust (II.1). This means that no one can be called just or unjust unless he proves this through his dealings with his fellowmen. In the corresponding way, according to John Stuart Mill, the rightness or wrongness of an act is also establish on the situation. ... both Aristotles virtue ethics and John Stuart Mills utilitarian ethics is both happiness and, as previously mentioned, delectation is a major element in not only Mills philosophy further also in Aristotles. However, it is but necessary for us to look into the concept of happiness first onward delving into the idea of pleasure. The concepts of happiness for both philosophers are a little different from each other. Happiness, for Aristotle, is the end of the things we do, which we hope for its own sake (everything else being desired for the sake of this) (Ethics I.2, 7). Aristotle, therefore, gives us a very lofty and unappeasable meaning of happiness somet hing that is desired as an end in itself. Money, friends and family therefore are not the summum bonum for Aristotle for they are not necessarily desired for themselves but for the for happiness that they can give us. John Stuart Mill has the same attitude towards happiness. For Mill, The utilitarian doctrine is that happiness is desirable, and the only thing desirable as an end all other things being only desirable as means to that end (Utilitarianism IV, 433). Based on the same statement, it is clear that Mill shares the same sentiments towards happiness as Aristotle does. When it comes to happiness, both Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics and Mills Utilitarianism underline the importance of the nobleness of character in the attainment of the happiness that they have set as their summum bonum. For Aristotle, happiness can only be attained through a virtuous life or the good life and this is defined as the good and noble performance of a mans function which is based on a rational princ iple (Ethics I.7). From this statement of Aristotles, one can therefore deduce that not