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Philosophy Assignment: Moral Goodness

   

Added on  2020-05-28

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Running head: SIMILARITY BETWEEN ARISTOTLE AND KANT’S MORAL GOODNESSSimilarity between Aristotle and Kant’s Moral GoodnessName of the StudentName of the UniversityAuthor Note

1SIMILARITY BETWEEN ARISTOTLE AND KANT’S MORAL GOODNESSSince the advent of philosophy, one of the most important questions that is asked or seeksto answer was the morality of human kind (Gino, Kouchaki and Galinsky 2015). The judgmentof the morality has been one of the elusive questions that the philosophers have wanted toanswer. In the essay the concept of moral goodness is evaluated in the light of theories ofAristotle and Kant are analyzed. The essay seeks to analyze the similarities between the theoriesformulated by the two great philosophers. The theories by the philosophers stand ages apart intime and may or may not have any similarities among them in theory but in practice there have tobe some similarities and the civilization may have developed a lot but the basic tenet remains thesame. The development of the moral virtue of Aristotle into the moral ethics of Kant has gonethrough a number of changes in the society. The changes in the moral virtue of a person and thejudgment benchmark of the society regarding the changes ahs remained same through the time.The various moral issues arising in the society has changed with time and with it changed theperception of moral goodness in the society. The concept of moral goodness in the society according to Aristotle is a thing of practiceand acquired habits rather than theoretical implication (Hutchinson 2015). According toAristotle, the concept of ethics is not a theoretical concept and the virtue can be acquired by aperson by constant and persistent practice of the person. The changes that have been observedwhile the practice of the individuals helps in determining the fact that the practice is good or bad.The constant use of good practices rather than bad will make a virtual change in an individualmaking them adhere to the virtuous behavior. Aristotle’s definition of virtuous behavior dependsmostly on the balance between the excess of extremely good behavior and the so-called bad one.The extremity of expression of a good behavior is also not ideal for the society (Sanderse 2015).

2SIMILARITY BETWEEN ARISTOTLE AND KANT’S MORAL GOODNESSAristotle’s ideal behavior chooses to depend on the virtue of an individual who balances theirdeed based on the balance between the extremities of the responses in a given situation (Carr2014). For example, Aristotle’s definition of courage (Greek: ανδρεια [andreia]) is a balancebetween excessive rashness and cowardice. Therefore, Aristotle explains that the responses ofthe individuals in the given scenarios of their lives should be a balance between the extremitiesof a reaction in a given scenario. The overall changes in the society according to him could be anamalgamation of the reactions by the majority of the population. Aristotelian philosophy is basedon actions and the practical application of the philosophy to achieve the penultimate existentialstate ‘Eudaimonia’. The state according to Aristotle is state of complete fulfillment and can beachieved by ethical decision-making. The will of the people guide their actions and there for theactions, which are the result of good will should be repeated in the society. The theory of Kant in the realm of moral virtues is dependent on the categoricalimperatives theorized by him (Sherman 2014). The Categorical imperatives theorized by Kantare a set of moral laws that are based on moral principles that one must follow in a givensituation. The categorical imperatives defined by Kant set groundwork for analyzing the moralityof an individual in a given scenario. The changes in the moral and the ethical values of theperson through time may be taken into consideration while setting the categorical imperative in acertain scenario. Kant divides the moral duty of a person based on two different factors, themoral duty of an individual towards oneself and towards the society (Aune 2014). Kant arguesthat the achievement of a perfectly virtuous as seemingly impossible but believes in theachievement of the happiness through actions as the right of an individual. Kant believes ion theestablishment of a set of ethics a priori, that is, setting of set theory based philosophical laws,which is set as a benchmark to understand the deviation of the judgment of the individuals. The

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