Character, Dignity and Self-Respect
Chérie L. Harbaugh, C. Ht.
PHI2800
Unit 5 Assignment 1
Capella University
February, 2015
Character, Dignity and Self-Respect
A man of all seasons is a film based on a character's inner strength of his faith, belief in the justice system and in man (Graf & Zinnemann, 1966). This paper will examine a character from “A Man of All Seasons” from the perspectives of the philosophers: Aristotle, St. Augustine and Epictetus and relating them to the characters, self-respect and dignity. The characters face many philosophical questions about themselves and what they believe in, what is important to them, and how important is a life to one individual. The characters "Sir Thomas", "Cromwell" and "Richard Rich" are three very different characters that reveal different aspects of themselves throughout the film (Graf & Zinnemann, 1966).
Aristotle
Aristotle was one of the greatest philosophers of all time lived from A.D. 384-322 (Sommers & Sommers, 2013). He was the son of Macedonian physician, personal tutor of Alexander the great and student of Plato (Sommers & Sommers, 2013). Aristotle believed even in the most desperate societies people face the same basic problems and have the same basic needs (Rachels, 2010).
Character
Aristotle devised a specific chart to define character. Aristotle Ethical Theory is more commonly known today as virtue ethics (Moskop, 1985). Aristotle believed that we all strive at happiness but happiness meant different things to different people (Sommers & Sommers, 2013). Candidate for happiness include pleasure, honor, health, virtue, wealth and noble (Moskop, 1985). This chart describes different character traits. The character trait, was described as an activity, the vice (excess), the virtue (mean), and finally the vice (deficit). For example, giving money is the activity the excess would be extravagancy or wastefulness the virtue...