PLATO

GOOD that is transcendent (beyond the community) EXTERNAL

1. UNIVERSAL
2. ETERNAL
Polis/ Community

ARISTOTLE
ETHICS: not science and has nothing to do with the absolute
Mans proper function/ goal of human being: to attain highest fulfillment.
Man has a:
a. REASON
1. SOUL
b. IRRATIONAL
2.

BODY

a. ASPECTS OF REASON guide us in determining our moral goals.

Speculative
Practical - My choices and decisions are rational which promote and guide
me to my highest fulfillment.

b. IRRATIONAL- closely united with the body

Vegetative growth nutrition

Desiring part desires and wishes of the body
Spontaneous impulses of our desires (shopping)

GREEK: logos/reason self governing, ordering and instituting principle

Human beings are rational: immanent activity
Immanent activities are those activities which originate from man and that
activity has a purpose or goal.
EXAMPLE:
I choose LAW SCHOOL because I
This is WITHIN the ambit of
will be able to actualize my
Fulfilling
myself
I institute
being.
by THIS
myself)
IS NOT
potentials
and fully realizegoal
my within myself (somethinghuman
EXTERNAL
value as a person and discover
who I am as a human being.

IMMANENT ACTIVITY
REASON
Guide us in
determining
our moral
goals.

ACTIVITY

PURPOSE
activity has

Originate
from man

a purpose
or goal

FULFILLIN
G MYSELF
becoming
rational (not
external)

GOOD

POTENCY TO ACTUALITY

Cultivating moral virtuesENDS / not means

they fulfill my being as a person

Determine acts which are morally virtuous (CRITERIA)

1. Rationally measuredan act that is in a way guided by reason
2. Just middle (mean)prudential judgment (Supreme Court Justices/ judges)
equity (intuition of the mind based on experience)
3. Motivated by reason
4. Proceeds from proper disposition: HABIT (constant practice becomes natural
or spontaneous)
Practical Wisdom: Master active virtue

Knowledge: akin to insight to truth (theory)

Action: ordained in day to day life.
Choose means which is appropriate to my end which is the fulfillment
of being human

ENDS
1st end: to be rational (not as means but as an end)
2nd end: divine contemplation (HIGHEST PEAK OF FULFILLMENT)
DIVINE: nothing to do with church or religion
-speculative reason allows him to contemplate and reach the sublime (fully
perfect and
becomes a PURE ACT)
EXAMPLE: Rambutan seed to Rambutan tree
When the seed becomes a tree and blossoms it becomes fully perfect since there is
no more potentiality (SUBLIME)
THIS IS RARE TO HUMANS the potential becomes actual fully perfect like God

Critiques: (Aristotles view)

1. Immortality
2. Very difficult to achieve (high education)
- Very aristocratic or elitist
- Requirements: proper background/ rigid training and rigid discipline (these
need resources)
- Requirements are not open to all