Living a Virtues Life

In the book A World of Ideas by Lee A. Jacob, we come across a wise man Aristotle. He explains that there are two kinds of virtue: intellectual and moral. Our virtue is what makes us different. Intellectual virtues is what we are born with and what we learn in the world and it is our job as humans and what we have inherited that makes our desire to learn more powerful than ever before. We develop wisdom to help guide us to a good life and knowledge leads us to be successful.

By reading Aristotle he has given me an insight to what life should be like and how one should life and I agree on some points he make. People should aim for what they desire most in life and go about it in the right way by working hard, but also Aristotle says, “Happiness involves not only a completeness of virtue but also a complete life time of fulfillment” (704).

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Aristotle believes that happiness is the ultimate goal in life. You cannot reach ultimate happiness unless we work hard and become successful.

Aristotle hits two main points and rules to live by, one being, “But this point will be consider later by itself makes choiceworthy and lacking in nothing” (699). Which means even when one is down the desires of living life is not impossible to overcome; two being, “Happiness seems, more than anything else, to answer to this description: for it is something we choose always for its own sake and never for the sake of something else” (699).

Which means do what makes you happy be able to continue to do something because one has a passion for it and no one cannot take that away because Aristotle says,”…those who desires and actions are controlled by reason will derive much profit from a knowledge of these matters” (696). Which mean happiness can be explained in terms of reason; Therefore, do something because it make you happy it will be seen by the choices we make in life. On the other hand, virtue is the concept of something that is good: a virtuous person is a morally good, an admirable person who acts and feels well, rightly, as they should.

But as Aristotle points out how virtue can have be incomplete he says, “for it is supposed that a man may possess it while asleep or during lifelong inactivates, or even suffering the greatest desires and misfortunes; and surely no one would call such a man happy” (698). I believe it means that life is too short not to be happy. Being able to experience a tragedy is a tragedy, but also it is an eye opener to people that life is too short not to be happy. in terms of

Plato he examines how life can be an illusion and many are so focused on what they want to see versus reality. We tie this into Aristotle by knowing what is good and bad, what is generosity, honesty, compassion and courage, but individuals twist these meaning around to there benefit, but according to Aristotle these words is what helps one live a virtue’s life by understanding and living through the meanings Living with Aristotle’s views is a way to live one’s life, in my opinion.

I believe happiness is not what one has, such as, materialistic things, but it is what is surrounding me, family, friends that is happiness, money is just another factor that helps one live in today’s society. I believe no one should be walked over and be treated bad just because of color, race, height, weight, but I believe with hard work one will be respected regardless of how they look. We all work hard to get somewhere in life. I believe knowledge is power. For example, in today society if you have the knowledge as well as the education you will be able to succeed and lead a virtues life.

With education it is just a step forward in the right direction of living a virtues life because as Aristotle explained working hard will take you places he says, “if he has been educated in a particular subject he is a good judge of that subject; if his education has been well- rounded he is a good judge in general” (695). I believe this means education will make a person well rounded and if one studies a particular subject they are known as an expert in that subject.

I believe in order to be successful you have to have high expectations for one’s self, myself included, will take me where I want to go and how I am going to get there, it is just the matter of going forth what I desire most and I will do that by living a good virtues life. I know what I am aiming for, it may not be where I end up, but I do have knowledge, education, and my desires to change this world will take me somewhere greater than I could have ever imagined.

Therefore, I believe Aristotle is correct on how we should life. We should work hard and be successful because if one does not work hard then one will not know what they are capable of in terms of how far can they be pushed to reach a goal one has longed for, for so long. Happiness just does not come from the money one makes, but it comes from being able be honest and being able understand what is rightfully good and bad. Family, friends, and the surrounds are what make a person generally happy.

Living a virtues life is not to lose sight for what one desires, but it is to go forth and move and do something to get to where one wants to be. Life takes us on a rollercoaster and we never know where we might end up, but if one looks at the bigger picture to what they want to achieve sometimes life has a weird way of proving to you that your desire is not really a desire, but it is a passion and by working hard and being successful that will stay with one until the end of time.