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    Possession and exercise of the virtues is both necessary ... — Carmelics
    Home/Virtue Ethics
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Possession and exercise of the virtues is both necessary and sufficient for happiness.

    Virtue Ethics
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    1 reason for
    2 reasons against

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Only what is noble, fine, or morally good (kalon) is genuinely good.
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    • 2.Possession of what is genuinely good secures a person's happiness.
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    • 3.The virtues are the only genuinely good things.
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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
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    • 1.Aristotle argues in the Nicomachean Ethics that eudaimonia requires a sufficient endowment of external goods, including health, friends, and resources.
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    • 2.A virtuous person subjected to severe misfortune—Priam's destruction, Philoctetes' abandonment—is not fully happy, regardless of their character.
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    • 3.The Stoic claim collapses the distinction between virtue as necessary condition and virtue as sufficient condition, which Aristotle's moderate externalism preserves.
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    Reason against 2 of 2
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    • 1.The sufficiency thesis requires that virtue alone fully determines happiness, but Philippa Foot and others show that moral luck can undermine flourishing independent of character.
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    • 2.If a virtuous agent's rational agency is destroyed by dementia or torture, their virtue cannot be exercised, and an unexercised disposition cannot secure happiness.
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    Virtue Ethics

    Related

    A virtuous person subjected to severe misfortune—Priam's destruction, Philoctete...Aristotle argues in the Nicomachean Ethics that eudaimonia requires a sufficient...If a virtuous agent's rational agency is destroyed by dementia or torture, their...Only what is noble, fine, or morally good (kalon) is genuinely good.
    +4 moreShow less
    Possession of what is genuinely good secures a person's happiness.The Stoic claim collapses the distinction between virtue as necessary condition ...The sufficiency thesis requires that virtue alone fully determines happiness, bu...The virtues are the only genuinely good things.

    Similar

    Possessing and exercising virtue is happiness.90%Knowledge is necessary for virtue and happiness89%Aristotle defines happiness strictly as the exercise of these highest ...87%The virtues are good.84%

    Source

    AI-extracted1/3 agreementValid
    SEP: stoicism
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    The best way into the thicket of Stoic ethics is through the question of what is good, for all parties agree that possession of what is genuinely good secures a person’s happiness. The Stoics claim that whatever is good must benefit its possessor under all circumstances. But there are situations in which it is not to my benefit to be healthy or wealthy. (We may imagine that if I had money I would spend it on heroin which would not benefit me.) Thus, things like money are simply not good, in spit
    Extraction notes

    Validity: Extracted via Max plan + API grounding/validity checks

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (1 for, 2 against)
    Edits
    1 edit