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    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that The Stoic and Peripatetic view that virtue is the end of life is mistaken.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
    ?
    • 1.Virtuous behavior is difficult, requiring harsh and bitter afflictions.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Because virtue is filled with toil and hardship, no one naturally seeks it as an end in itself.
      ?

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    • 3.What is genuinely sought as an end must be something people naturally and voluntarily desire.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    2 perspectives
    Reason against 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Pleasure, not virtue, is the natural end of all living beings, as Epicurus argued: nature itself guides creatures toward enjoyment and away from pain.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Virtue, on Epicurean grounds, is instrumentally valuable only insofar as it reliably produces pleasurable and tranquil states of living.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.An end must be intrinsically and universally motivating; virtue fails this criterion since it is pursued only when pleasant consequences are anticipated.
      ?

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    Reason against 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Valla, following Augustine, held that the highest human good is beatitude—a state involving joy and fruition in God—which is distinct from and superior to moral virtue alone.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Stoic and Peripatetic ethics conflate the means of living well (virtuous conduct) with the ultimate goal (felicity or beatitude), committing a category error about final ends.
      ?

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    • 3.Even Aristotle's own account in the Nicomachean Ethics treats eudaimonia as the true end and virtue as merely constitutive of it, undermining a pure virtue-as-end thesis.
      ?

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    Next step

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    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.