Essay on The Doctrine of the Mean in Aristotles Politics

The Doctrine of the Mean in Aristotle’s Politics.nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp; Examining the texts of Aristotle’s â€Å"Nicomachean Ethics† and â€Å"Politics† side by side, one is bound to find parallels between his reasoning with regard to the individual and to the state. In â€Å"Nicomachean Ethics† Aristotle discusses happiness, virtue, and the good life on an individual level and lays out necessary provisions for the good life of a person. He maintains that virtue is a necessary element of happiness: a man will be happy if he has virtues of justice, courage, and temperance, each constituting a balance between the extremes. But this requirement of virtue for the happy life goes beyond the individual level, as we see it in â€Å"Politics†. There,†¦show more content†¦Therefore, the mean relative to us â€Å"is not one, and is not the same for everyone†. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;With respect to this, Aristotle states that virtue seeks the mean relative to us, and this is how â€Å"each science produces its product well†: â€Å"by focusing on what is intermediate and making the product conform to that.† A well-made product will be that to which nothing can be added or taken away without making it worse, since it assumes that â€Å"excess or deficiency ruins a good result, while the mean preserves it.† And just like good craftsmen focus on an intermediate when they produce a product, one should aim at intermediate in regard to virtue. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Thus we see that virtue is to be achieved by concentrating on the optimal mean between the extremes of deficiency and excess. But the discussion of virtue would be incomplete if one did not investigate its role with respect to the object possessing virtue and its effect on that object. Since Aristotle defines virtue as a state that decides the optimal mean relative to us, he asserts that â€Å"every virtue causes its possessors to be in a good state and to perform their functions well; the virtue of eyes, e.g., makes the eyes and their functioning excellent, because it makes us see well† , and this is argued to be true in the case of all objects. At this point, the role of virtue with respect to the object is apparent: something will be functioning at the best level only if it reaches anShow MoreRelatedAristotles Theory of Slavery1295 Words   |  6 PagesSome aspects of Aristotles theory of slavery Slavery -- natural or conventional? 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