Aristotle vs. Socrates: The Main Difference in the Concept of Virtue Essay

Do you want to learn about the views of Aristotle vs Socrates on virtue? Read this essay and get an insight into the main differences in how Socrates and Aristotle defined virtue in their ethical theories.

Introduction

Today people build their society and relations in it on the principles of ethics which were developed by such philosophers as Socrates and Aristotle in the ancient times. One of the main principles on which the ethical school is based is the notion of virtue as the representation of the moral perfectness of a man.

Moreover, virtue can also be defined as the way which a man should follow to live the better life which is full of light and goodness. Socrates and Aristotle are considered as the founders of the ethic principles. Socrates was the first who determined the notion of virtue, and Aristotle developed his own vision with basing on Socrates’ viewpoint.

Thus, there are many similarities in the philosophers’ interpretation of virtue, but there is also a significant difference in their approaches to the discussion of virtue which is influential for the organization of their ethical systems. This important difference is in determining the source of virtue as the moral category.

Socratic Virtue

Socrates considers virtue as the basis for understanding people’s morality. Virtue can be thought of as the complex of the best human qualities and traits which he develops consciously. Socrates determines four main virtues which exist in people’s lives.

They are prudence (or personal wisdom), justice, temperance, and fortitude (Taylor, 2001). Following these four virtues is the men’s chance to live the better life because they are connected with all the aspects of people’s living including civil life and military service.

However, a man cannot follow the principles of a virtuous life consciously when he does not know them. That is why to live a moral life, it is necessary to know what the virtue is. Having determined four main virtues, Socrates states that prudence can be considered as the major one which is the source for developing justice, temperance, and fortitude.

His arguments depend on his opinion that prudence (or wisdom) is associated with the human intelligence or reason, and intelligence is the knowledge (Taylor, 2001). Thus, Socrates understands virtue and the way to it as the knowledge.

According to Socrates, the real morality and virtue is the knowledge of what is good and what is bad (Taylor, 2001). The understanding of virtue as good is the way to reach the person’s moral satisfaction and live the happy life. A man can acquire such virtues as prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude when he spends a lot of time trying to learn and perceive the world around him and developing oneself.

The human’s perception is his knowledge about oneself and the reality. It is possible to learn to live a virtuous life as persons learn any other norms and rules. Socrates considers virtues and the moral norms and rules which are based on them as eternal and unalterable. Analyzing Socrates visions of virtue, it is possible to say that he understands the knowledge as the source for developing virtues the main of which is prudence as the reflection of person’s intelligence (Taylor, 2001).

Aristotelian Virtue

Aristotle develops Socrates’ principles associated with the notion of virtue and presents his own structure of human’s moral categories which form the ethics. Thus, Aristotle understands virtue is the balance or ‘golden mean’ between two possible extremes in actions and thoughts (Curzer, 2012). That person who is virtuous should know where this ‘golden mean’ is and act according to it in order to achieve the goal to live the happy life.

Happiness is the notion which Aristotle combines with the idea of virtues because virtue is the human’s way to his happiness and the part of happiness as the whole one. Happiness as a result of following a virtuous life is also the part of the person’s life when his mind controls his will, feelings, and emotions and points the good way to happiness (Curzer, 2012).

Moreover, Aristotle determines much more virtues which influence the people’s life. They are liberality, truthfulness, friendliness, forgiveness, integrity and some others which form the person’s morality (Gottlieb, 2011).

According to Aristotle all the virtues can be divided into intellectual and moral. Thus, intellectual virtues are affected by the people’s wisdom and their will to follow them. Moral virtues are connected with the emotional nature of humans (Gottlieb, 2011). They depend on the people’s desire, will, and motives to realize them.

Virtue is the moral category which can be considered as the motivation for person’s actions and behavior. Therefore, Aristotle understands person’s will, desire, and motivation as the main basis for virtue, but not the knowledge (Curzer, 2012).

Aristotle vs Socrates

Socrates and Aristotle develop the knowledge of virtue as goodness and the combination of the person’s best traits, but their approaches to the issue of the source of virtues are quite opposite to each other and form the main difference in their visions of virtue as the moral category. Socrates’ opinion that the knowledge is the single source of virtue is argued by his successors.

The idea that “virtue is knowledge of what the agent’s good is, and the agent’s good is knowledge” is rather controversial because it appeals only to the rational on in humans and rejects the fact of their emotional causes for actions (Taylor, 2001, p. 69). Socrates does not differentiate between the knowledge and its usage.

He considers that a person can act badly and without following the principles of virtuous life only because of the fact he does not know these principles. This opinion can be considered as rather idealistic because it rejects the natural peculiarities of the people’s behavior which are based on the affective part of the personality (Taylor, 2001).

Aristotle’s vision of the virtue’s source can be considered as more realistic in comparison with Socrates’ one. He is the first philosopher who develops the moral principles with focusing on the voluntary aspect of personality. The knowledge has the general character, and the action is a result of the personal will.

Being influenced by the knowledge, virtues and morality depend on will and desire to live a virtuous life. It is possible to know what is good, but it is important to want to follow goodness (Gottlieb, 2011). It is important to notice that that person who has the knowledge about virtues can have no desire to develop them and to follow them even if she knows these moral principles.

That is why Aristotle’s theory of virtue is “relevant to contemporary life in detail, not just in general approach” (Curzer, 2012, p. 4). Aristotle’s viewpoint that virtues in action are the effects of person’s will can be considered as more plausible in comparison with Socrates’ idea on the rational character of virtues.

Conclusion

The notion of virtue is the basic category of the ethics which was developed by Socrates and Aristotle. The main principles of virtues provided by these philosophers have many similarities in relation to virtue as the moral category, but the main difference is in Socrates and Aristotle’s vision of the source of virtue.

Socrates presents the idealistic visions of goodness depending only on the knowledge when Aristotle examines all the aspects of this notion and focuses on the voluntary factor. Aristotle’s idea can be considered as more reliable because it depends on the natural characteristics of personality.

References

Curzer, H. J. (2012). Aristotle and the virtues. USA: Oxford University Press.

Gottlieb, P. (2011). The virtue of Aristotle’s ethics. USA: Cambridge University Press.

Taylor, C. C. W. (2001). Socrates: A very short introduction. USA: Oxford University Press.