I will like to write about Aristotle. He was a pupil of Plato who later found his own school, Leceum. Aristotle is one of the most important founding figures in Western philosophy; he invented classical logic which was incorporated to modern formal logic. However, more concerning to me of Aristotle is his Nicomachean Ethics.
In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics there is emphasis on the important of action. From action of life, friendship and happiness, all human activities aim at some end that we consider good. Most activities are a means to a higher end. The highest human good, then is that activity that is an end in itself. That good is happiness. The goal of the Ethics is to determine how best to achieve happiness.
Happiness depends on living in accordance with the appropriate virtues, and virtues is a deposition rather than an activity, that is a virtuous person is naturally disposed to behave in the right way for the right reason.
One by one, Aristotle discusses the various moral virtues and their corresponding vices.
Courage consist of confidence in the face of fear.
Temperance consists of not giving easily to the pleasure of physical sensation.
Liberality and magnificence consist of giving away varying amounts of money in appropriate tasteful ways.
Magnanimity and proper ambition consist of having the right disposition toward honor and knowing what is one’s due.
Patience is the appropriate disposition towards anger, though it is sometimes appropriate to show some degree of anger.
Prudence is the intellectual virtue that helps us reason properly about ethical matters.
Aristotle summarizes friendship as three kinds, friendship base on utility, friendship base on pleasure, and friendship based on goodness of character, the first two kinds are superficial and are not lasting, friendship base on goodness of character is the best kind of friendship, because there is love in this kind of friendship as such there is nothing to gain from one another....