What is a character trait according to Aristotle?

According to Aristotle, a virtue is a trait of character manifested in habitual action that is good for a person to have. For example, virtues for a teacher would be being knowledgeable, articulate and patient. Virtues help us to fit in society, practices and activities we have chosen to participate in.

How is character relevant in making moral choices Aristotle?

In his discussion of the virtues, for example, Aristotle says that all the excellences of character must be informed by practical wisdom (phronēsis), itself a disposition to make morally discerning choices in practical matters. This suggests a link between intellectual virtues and virtues of character.

What are Aristotle’s four character types?

Four temperaments

The four temperament theory is a proto-psychological theory which suggests that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic.
Temperament theory has its roots in the ancient theory of humourism.

What was Aristotle’s view of character and habit?

Habits, for Aristotle, are determinate states of character formed by training and giving rise to natural regularities in the individual’s actions over time. In J.H. Randall’s words, the excellences of the individual “can be considered as hexis or ‘habits,’ as powers possessed by the individual.

What are Aristotle’s 11 virtues?

For example, regarding what are the most important virtues, Aristotle proposed the following nine: wisdom; prudence; justice; fortitude; courage; liberality; magnificence; magnanimity; temperance.

How are the moral values related to an individual character?

Moral character primarily refers to the collection of qualities that differentiate one individual from another – although on a cultural level, the group of moral behaviors to which a social group adheres can be said to unite and define it culturally as distinct from others.

How did Aristotle view morality?

Aristotle viewed morality as being based in virtue, or moral excellence. That is why his moral philosophy is described as a form of virtue ethics. For Aristotle, moral philosophy deals with the course of someone’s life and how they conduct themselves over time.

What are the four types of character?

One way to classify characters is by examining how they change (or don’t change) over the course of a story. Grouped in this way by character development, character types include the dynamic character, the round character, the static character, the stock character, and the symbolic character.

What are Aristotle’s four levels of virtue?

In order for one to be virtuous they must display prudence, temperance, courage, and justice; moreover, they have to display all four of them and not just one or two to be virtuous.

What did Aristotle say about habits?

Have you ever heard this famous quote that’s often attributed to Aristotle: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Or, put more simply: “Excellence is a habit.”

What are the 14 virtues?

His were temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and humility. Being remarkably human, he didn’t always keep these virtues. Many of these virtues go back to what Aristotle held true.

What did Aristotle mean by the state of character?

This spiritual stability is what he would describe as character. He outlines states of characters as virtues that either stand well or in adversity to one’s passions. It involves a person’s ability to make choices and also how those choices effect those situations, how it all relates to their predispositions.

How are the virtues of character acquired according to Aristotle?

Therefore, virtues of character are subordinate to virtues of thought and serve as the means to achieve happiness. Then, Aristotle discusses how virtues of character are acquired. He believes that they are results of habits. People attain the virtues of character by practicing and becoming habituated to them.

What did Aristotle mean by good and just actions?

Aristotle believes that good and just actions, guided by politics, are achieved through convention rather than by nature. This causes him to conclude that the best people for politics are those who are educated about them and have the most experience with them.

How are virtues of character different from virtues of thought?

As it is mentioned before, Aristotle thinks there are two types of virtues, virtues of character and virtues of thought. They are different because they belong to different parts of the human soul. Aristotle divides human soul into rational and irrational parts.