Habituation (Aristotle)
In Aristotle's book he argues that no act is served for the purpose of the act itself, but rather that all acts have some ultimate goal. For humans the ultimate goal is happiness. The only way that happiness as a whole can be achieved is through moral virtue. For someone to be virtuous they can not simply perform a virtuous act or two, but must always act virtuously. That is the basis for habituation and the reason that it is so very important. It is also for this reason that only those with the proper upbringing can be competent students of ethics and politics. In stressing such a great importance on habituation Aristotle can not truly blame people for how their process of habituation turns out. By the time we have reached the stage in our lives to make proper choices our habits have already been deeply embedded within us. It is important that we understand the meaning of happiness in Aristotle's eyes. People can be happy at any given by time by either their actions or the outcomes of their actions. However happiness is quite different. Aristotle goes out of his way to point out the fact that happiness can only be achieved by serving for an ultimate good. This good is moral virtue. This is because achieve
The only things that we can change through training are our instincts. This is a point that no sane person could argue against other than for the sake of arguing. Another flaw in Aristotle's reasoning is that in saying that people with a proper upbringing are the only fit students of ethics he is truly saying that only people of the appropriate class have a chance to understand what is right. It is no ones fault but theirs if they have led a bad life. He believes that those who have not been brought up with the proper morals can not grasp the idea of what is right and what is not right. He robs our animal instincts of their role in achieving happiness. Even if they are unaware of what ought to be done, it is their fault for putting their selves in the position where they would not understand what should be done. All this means that a clear understanding of what is right and wrong must be had before we can form our habits if we wish to have consistently virtuous results. Choice involves rational consideration and preference of actions. In understanding virtue, the starting point that he feels is most effective is starting with what is known to us. Turning down sex would go directly against what a slut would do and therefor would make them not slut. The problem here is that most of our habits and possibly our deepest embedded one are formed and reinforced by our upbringings. They can only be a slut if they choose to take advantage of every sexual opportunity that they get. Aristotle also believes that we are the ones responsible for our moral condition through our choosing to form the habit in which we choose to form.
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