Deep and Balanced Virtues #65

One Year, Six Ways #3

Photo by Alberto Casetta on Unsplash

Welcome to the next post in our year-long philosophy experiment, where we will try out six different philosophies of life and see how they work out for us! I’ll send an email like this every Monday, Wednesday and Friday (7 am Pacific Time, if I got the time zones right) for the coming months. There’s a discussion forum here, and I’d love to have your feedback on the whole project and to hear how you’re doing and whether you find this useful and fun.

These first two months, we will try to live according to the advice of the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC). Last time, we talked about controlling our emotions. Today, we’ll see what Aristotle says about the right practice of our virtues.

Deep virtues

If you feel that you’d like to get a high-level overview of Aristotle’s philosophy of life, I’ve posted a short guide over at Daily Philosophy.

Now, it’s important for Aristotle that our virtues are not only something superficial that we have one day and that’s gone the next. Let’s say, we’re looking at a criminal, a bank robber. He’s just had a good day robbing banks and now he’s out in the evening with his girl. They’re having a good time, it’s a nice summer night, and at some point they see a beggar sitting at a street corner. The robber, because he feels so good and happy, and perhaps a little bit in order to impress his girlfriend, gives the beggar a hundred dollars. Is this a sign of virtue? Has the robber suddenly become a good man?