The state of being virtuous appeals to almost all human beings as a concept, but the
difficulty lies in beginning on the path towards virtue. Aristotle claims that virtuous “states arise
out of like activity” (1103b21). This claim points squarely to the reality that people develop their
character through what they do repeatedly, and so if the actions they choose are good ones, they
will develop good character and vice versa. Since virtuous actions can lead to virtuous states,
developing the proper habits is extremely important. Habituation is specifically needed in order to
achieve virtue because a single virtuous action does not automatically make a virtuous individual,
rather a virtuous individual is produced by actions that “proceed from a firm and unchangeable
character” (1105a34). Aristotle’s claim is valid because it is only rational to think that one action
does not define character; it is the repetition of actions that do. If a man acts bravely in one instance,
it does not necessarily mean he is a brave man who will continuously act bravely as a result of his
character. Aristotle’s claim that an individual can do a virtuous action without having a virtuous
character is logical because, without it, there would be no starting point to develop virtue. Virtue
would be made impossible if one had to be virtuous in order to feel and act virtuously since no one
is born with virtue. Aristotle’s argument appeared in my own experience as I attempted to develop
virtue, specifically courage. Throughout my experiment, I showed signs of courage by
participating in class and eagerly jumping into unfamiliar situations at the Campus School.
However, I do not consider myself to be a courageous person solely based on these acts. If I
continue to perform courageous acts and my feelings follow accordingly, then I may develop
courage. A virtuous state is developed through the habituation of virtuous actions as a result of
character.
The following is a sample of 1 paragraph for Writing Requirement #3 only. It has been removed
from the essay as whole, and is offered as a good example of the structure of what those 2-3
body paragraphs should look like.
As Aristotle lays out all of the different aspects of moral virtue, it is tempting to feel overwhelmed
or helpless. Amidst dozens of detailed comments speaking to how different factors influence the
ability to reach the virtue state, it could seem as though all situations and instances are doomed to
make it even more difficult to be virtuous. In chapter one of Book II, though, Aristotle reminds
that “it is from the same causes and by the same means that every excellence is both produced and
destroyed,” (1103b9-10). If all temptations to act in excess or defect come from the same causes
and same means, then the power to dismiss the two extremes and to instead act moderately is
reflected in every single choice that humans make. Aristotle’s insight is profound in that he gives
a great deal of weight to each of these small, seemingly arbitrary, sometimes instantaneous
occasions of choice. The notion that these decisions can either be interpreted as overwhelmingly
pressured or of great potential to make what are, in effect, life-changing decisions, is both correct
and inspiring for personal reaction. My experience with attempting to make correct choices during
my experiment mirrored the point that Aristotle is making with this insight. It was reassuring and
morale-boosting to recognize that in the face of difficulty, simply choosing to drink water instead
of juice may be a large success. This piece of wisdom validates even simple decisions like drinking
water or eating breakfast and also speaks to the idea that it is not just one large transition from
incontinence or continence to virtue but rather a collection of several often difficult choices that
make up one large shift to virtue and toward eudaimonia in general.
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Name
Instructor’s name
Course
Date
Aristotle Lab Experiment
Part I
The selected moral virtue is patience. The table below shows a survey of the current
condition.
# of Day
Feelings
Day 1
I had a meeting scheduled at 10:30 with a colleague. I arrived early for the
meeting; however, by 11, the colleague had not arrived. I left the venue of the
meeting frustrated.
Day 2
I went for grocery shopping, but since there were a couple of people waiting
to be served, I changed my mind on buying the groceries.
Day 3
I was supposed to go for banking services to solve an issue with my credit
card. But due to long queues, I postponed the visit to an unknown date.
Day 4
I was walking in a crowded street. I came across a group of old ladies that
were sauntering, and I couldn’t overtake them. I got frustrated.
Day 5
I was driving to my home when I got stuck in a traffic jam. Although I had no
urgent activity to be done, I was frustrated by how long it took for the road to
open up.
Day 6
I had to warm food in the microwave for 3 minutes. However, due to my
impatient, I did not wait for the three minutes to elapse.
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Aristotle Lab Part II: Experiment Design
Sphere of Human Action: The sphere of action that this report experiments with is patience
with an excess of irascibility and a deficiency in lack of spirit.
Summary: Aristotle had the belief that virtues are actually the center stage between extremes
in the opposite that are not really good. Consequently, patience does lie between apathy on
the one side and then impetuousness on another side. In case somebody has to be labeled
virtuous going by the definition of Aristotle then they have to appear on the fine line of one
who does not care and hurrying into something before taking a keen consideration of the
same (Aristotle 31). He went on to state that it is bitter to achieve patience, however, the fruit
of the same is sweet.
In consequence, to those who are faithful it is rather essential for one to see the need for
being patient. God has His schedule of running the world which is variant from the one of
humans. This sees the faithful wait when they ask for something from Him. Further, at
different spheres of life, patience is still called for. It would be quite disastrous if people
collaborating in a certain job are inpatient.
Second Rule of Conduct: I have taken keen notice of some of the habits I harbor as far as
the Aristotle Lab Experiment is concerned. I have noted that while I am keen at arriving
earlier for meetings, I do not have the time to wait for a colleague who arrives 30 minutes
after my arrival. In consequence such scenarios only leave me frustrated even as I depart
from the meeting venue. Further, when I take my time to go for grocery shopping, I find it
quite hard to wait for the others who arrive early to do their shopping as I find this
infuriating. When it comes to doing other everyday activities like banking or even solving
issues with my credit card, I find long queues infuriating and I end up postponing the same to
some other date. Further, I find it hard to cope with other people who are going by their daily
life activities such as sauntering ladies (Aristotle 6). I found it quite hard to overtake them but
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instead be frustrated at the turn of events. Traffic jam frustrates me to the core, especially
when I am driving home and get stuck in traffic jam. This is despite the fact that I may not be
having any other activity to do but just driving. Lastly, when it comes to warming food, I
would not take a mere short 3 minute4s to complete such a small task.
Necessary means: This tales one to the means through which they would become patient. On
my part I have the idea that it would be a lifelong process for me to achieve the necessary
means. This would be especially so when it comes to waiting for a mere three minutes for me
to warm my food in the microwave. I am quite aware that the best way that I would begin is
to just start being patient or acting in a patient manner. It would be necessary for me to take
some few breaths whenever I have the feeling that I am impatient. Even much as it would feel
that I am not being true to myself by being patient whenever I would be in need of something
at the spur of the moment, having consistence in practicing would lead me into worthy
results. Further, having a realization that God does have everything under control would go a
long way in enabling me to calm myself whenever I am impatient. By having something that
may ground me, it would lead me to being halfway through getting better results. However, I
should know that it is not an easy thing to achieve patience but it is something that I would be
struggling daily against so that I realize the best outcome in life.
The Pronomos: One of my best friends has achieved a worthy milestone when it comes to
inculcating patience. He sees patience as the virtue which controls his temper. He is well
aware that he must not get too angry nor control himself never to get angry whenever he
should. He is aware that his mental to do list does have a tendency of being jammed. In the
end, people get quite occupied with what they have to do and they get intolerant of anything
which may get in the way. He is aware that the mind gets to jump from one thought to
another or even one task to the next and hence people end up living interrupted lives (Aristotle
20). The solution to all this is being mindful or even aware of the thoughts that people harbor
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every day. This is especially so when one has a million things that they are carrying through
their heads.
Program of habituation: So as to become patient I will do the following:
Firstly, I will have to make myself wait as this is one of the best ways to achieve patience.
Friends who have inculcated this habit have told me that they tend to feel happier in the long
run when they wait for it. It will be prudent for me to start with small things like warming my
food in the microwave for thirty minutes. Secondly, I will stop doing those things that I
consider not to be particularly important. This is one of the ways I would achieve in
removing stress and frustration from my life. I would take the necessary step in evaluating
my programs for the week by looking at my schedule whenever I wake up or even before
going to sleep. The next thing would be to be mindful all the times of the things that make me
impatient. Being mindful of such things would help me in eliminating the many tasks that
would be crowding my mind for no apparent reason. Lastly, it would be helpful for me to
always relax and take deep breaths whenever I am faced with a task.
Part III: Experimental Data
I have taken my time to look through the habituation steps that I have highlighted above and
from the experiment in part I and come up with the following conclusion. My first strategy
would be to have tally marks. This would be beneficial If I had actual problems. In this
regard, I would have tally marks on some little sheet each time that that I get to lose my
patience. The other worthy course would be to figure out the real things that set in motion my
impatience. Lastly, it would be helpful to have deep breaths. Each time that I start to lose my
patience, I should take a deep breath and then breathe out slowly. This would be followed
with successive breaths of the same kind.
Comment Key for Apology Essay
Note the numbers/letters in the margins of your essay and find the comment that corresponds to it
here. Comments for the three writing requirements will be written with a number (for the
corresponding Writing Requirement on the assignment sheet) and then a lower case letter for the
comment, for example 1b, or 2c. Comments for the introduction and conclusion use the abbreviations
INT and CON respectively.
The thesis statement has a check +, a check, or a check -, to indicate quality, or XT to indicate that there
is no thesis claim. If the thesis is missing for a particular Writing Requirement, it will be indicated as XT2
and/or XT3.
Introduction
a
Not all the subjects of the Writing Requirements are referred to here. Your reader will
have no way of knowing why the unmentioned ones show up in the course of the body
of the essay.
b
The thesis on the value of the philosopher to society needs to be made clearer. Saying
that a philosopher *has* value is not as strong as saying what that value is (albeit in
brief because it is a thesis claim).
c
Name all the texts and authors you will refer to in the body of the essay. This is an
important part of documenting your sources, and establishing the context/scope of the
discussion for your reader. The author of a film is the director.
a
Writing Requirement #1 – Define who a philosopher is
The definitional criteria here are not clear enough and/or not distinctive enough. The
criteria used do not separate off philosophers from other kinds of thinkers, so the
criteria are too broad.
b
The definition here seems to be ‘reverse engineered’ either too much, or almost
completely, from Socrates, which is only one possible example to begin thinking from.
c
Philosophers do more than just think about ethics and politics. You are making one
part of philosophy the whole of it. Even though we only ‘see’ Socrates in the Apology,
we know from reading that that he was doing work in other branches of philosophy as
well, and those branches were also introduced and discussed in class lecture and the
initial reading of the semester.
d
If you are going to define a philosopher’s activity as necessarily involving teaching, or
changing people’s views, you are going to have to make a stronger argument for that.
Why would philosophers have to be responsible to interact with others in such a way?
Why isn’t it enough that they just perform the philosophical function themselves in
order to meet the definition of a philosopher? Think about a comparison to a musician.
If a musician doesn’t play in a group, or in pubic, is she not a musician? If this does not
follow for philosophers, then you need an argument specifically addresses WHY they
have a particular social responsibility, or else they fail to even BE philosophers. This
may be the result of an overemphasis on ethical and political philosophy as your only
understanding of what a philosopher inquires into.
e
a
Examined Life is used insufficiently, or not at all. The film gives many examples of
philosophers from which you can generalize definitional criteria. While you might not
necessarily cite from the film directly (by giving quotes), it can still be referred to.
Writing Requirement #2 – Evaluate Socrates as a philosopher
Evaluating something is saying how good it is, or not, based on criteria given. This
analysis merely classifies Socrates. That is, it identifies Socrates as a philosopher in the
first place; it does not critically evaluate to what extent he is a good or effective one, or
a bad or ineffective one (as a few of a number of possible evaluations). This should be
based on the definitional criteria you argued for in WR #1.
b
This section has little or no textual material from “The Apology” or it is ineffectively
used, or poorly matched to the definitional criteria. That is the only source material on
which you can make your evaluation, and your reader shouldn’t have to take you word
for it. You must cite the relevant text to make your argument.
c
The evaluation has to line up with the definitional criteria. The criteria should be clearly
applied, and in the same order as they are given in the definition paragraph.
Writing Requirement #3 – value of philosopher for society
a
The claim about the value of a philosopher is weak, unclear, or not present. The claim
should include a clear statement about what the value is, and set up the argument for
how/why that is a good for society.
b
There is no clear argument here to support what the value of the philosopher’s
activities are for society. You have, presumably, already said what those activities are
in your definition. Here you are doing something different. You must argue for how
and why these activities are some kind of benefit, addition, good thing, etc. for society.
It is not enough here just to say that the philosopher carries out these activities without
making the argument for their worth.
Conclusion
a
In a paper this short a repetitive conclusion is really not effective. Your reader is
unlikely to have forgotten what you said only a page or two ago. Instead do something
to go beyond what you have already presented by perhaps expanding the discussion to
something related to the subject of the essay but not directly addressed in the prompt
so your reader can see other avenues for thinking about these issues.
“. . . moral excellence comes around as the result of habit . . . .” (1103a17)
“Neither by nature, then, nor contrary to nature do excellences arise in us; rather we are adapted by
nature to receive them, and are made perfect by habit,” (1103a23-25)
“Thus, in one word, states arise out of like activities.” (1103b21-2)
“It makes no small difference then, whether we form habits of one kind or of another from our very
youth; it makes a great deal of difference, or rather all the difference.” (1103b24-26)
“. . . that it is in the nature of such things to be destroyed by defect and excess . . .” (1104a12)
“For moral excellence is concerned with pleasures and pains . . . .” (1104b12)
“The agent must also be in a certain condition when he does them; in the first place, he must have
knowledge, secondly he must choose the acts and choose them for their own sakes, and thirdly his
action must proceed from a firm and unchangeable character.” (1105a31-33)
{pick any one part of the three features of a virtuous agent}
“ . . . by the intermediate relatively to us, that which is neither goo much nor too little, and that is not
one and the same for all.” (1106a32-33)
“. . . the things to which we ourselves naturally tend seem more contrary to the intermediate.”
(1109a13)
And the three practical rules of conduct, 1109b1-13
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