In the readings you will encounter Aristotle’s analysis of virtue as a habit that lies in a mean between excess and deficiency (see the table of virtues and vices for examples). The questions for this week, based on his account, are: what habits do you find in yourself (or others) that are excessive or deficient? In what way do these habits or vices make you or others act immoral? And how might these habits be changed? Here you can refer to Aristotle’s insight that to change a vice to a virtue we must act – we can’t just intellectually understand what is to be done – and we should act in a way that shoots for the opposite extreme. In doing so, we fall short of that extreme and end up moving a little bit closer to the mean. For example, if I am a coward, I need to try and act a bit recklessly. Obviously I will fall short of doing so. But I will be pulled a little from my deficient position towards the mean of courage.
Only sources to use
https://www.cwu.edu/~warren/Unit1/aristotles_virtues_and_vices.htm
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