Virtue and its Importance
Virtue is a person's superior moral character. A morally great individual has good values. Such a person is brave, compassionate, forgiving, truthful, and polite. Because of these characteristics, he or she is committed to doing what is right regardless of the cost. A morally upright individual does not give in to desires or pressures, but instead follows accepted norms and standards. Personal virtues are innate and can only be acquired via good parenting. But, humans are not perfect, and a person must cultivate virtues so that they become regular in his or her daily life (Lockwood 21). Being virtuous in life helps in taking control of own life and redirect it towards fulfillment of personal goals and objectives. Many societies recognize virtues as essential qualities for the well-being and happiness of people. It is believed that when people embrace good attributes, then it is easy for them to incorporate other virtues that they lack as they progress with life. For example, if someone declares they will persevere the challenges they face in life to achieve a specific goal, then it becomes easy for them to accomplish the goal.
The Concept of Golden Mean
The reason why people get stuck in some situations when they still know what to do is the inability to apply a particular virtue. They find it difficult to influence a specific situation to change the outcome if their favor. Aristotle’s analysis of virtues explains an attribute as a balance between two extremes of vices. The concept of Aristotle's theory of “Golden Mean,\\\" represents the balance (Kraut 447). The idea states that virtue is the ‘intermediate state’ between the two vices of ‘too little’ and ‘too much.' Also, people tend to oppose morality related to one of the two vices, either because it forms a stronger contrast with the particular vice or because they have a natural tendency to resist that vice. This paper will do an Aristotelian analysis of two personal virtues necessary in modern time and place, forgiveness and contentment.
The Virtue of Forgiveness
The first virtue, forgiveness, is the virtue of overlooking other people’s mistakes and having the willingness to move on without grudges. It involves pardoning others keeping away from the aspect of resentment. Also, forgiveness is described as habit of avoiding from anger or bitterness by a person who may have been offended by another. It means withdrawing any punishment entitled to someone for a particular mistake. Human beings have got different interests, and when there is conflict of interest then they end up hurting each other. Most people who have nurtured the virtue of forgiveness experience peaceful life (Kraut 448). Forgiveness is hard to come by but that every person should put efforts to achieve the important virtue. A virtue is a mean between the deficiency holding on to resentment and unconditional forgiveness.
The Importance of Forgiveness
A person who holds to anger or resentment and never forgives those who go against him/her lives a life of complains. Proponents of the virtue of forgiveness argue that a person’s soul becomes free of the guilty conscience of blaming others. People who fail to embrace forgiveness find it difficult to socialize with others. Their social life is affected and they tend to keep to themselves. Therefore, being unforgiving is detrimental to the psychological well-being of an individual (Lockwood 24). For instance, if an employee loses his/her job due to the mistake of another person, it becomes difficult for the two to be friends if they did not forgive one another. The two employees start avoiding each other, and holds on to resentment which makes them both pessimistic and unhappy in their lives. Forgiveness is of paramount importance to the well-being of an individual and the society.
The Excess and Deficiency of Forgiveness
Another example is when a person was brought up by an abusive parent, either mother or father, never forgives them and keeps blaming them for their actions. It is difficult for the unforgiving individuals to attain their goals since they always think of people who went against them. Forgiveness of oneself is also crucial for inner peace. People who hold on to violence may not be in a position to forgive themselves for their past mistakes (Leibowitz 123). They tend to revisit the past and blame themselves every moment of their life. For example, someone who got involved in substance abuse or sexual immoralities keeps blaming himself or herself for the choices they made. These individuals never have the happiness and joy of life when the past continues to haunt them.
The excess of forgiving is the case of someone who is always forgiving. Forgiveness is a process but not a feeling, one cannot say that “I just feel like forgiving.” It takes time for one to recover from anger and pain emanating from actions of others against him/her. It is also difficult to let go and forget all the misfortunes other people have caused. Forgiveness is a very high virtue that everyone struggles to achieve because it is essential for our daily lives (Kraut 450). It is not sensible to always forgive every person even when their actions are affecting the society at large. For example, someone may be forced to punish robbers or thugs by reporting them to the law enforcement agencies or taking them to court for disrupting peace in the community. Moreover, it is not morally correct to allow an individual or a group of people to continue stealing from community members and killing those who resist their actions. Such violent individuals should face the law which will give them the proper discipline. Forgiveness is a virtue learned during a lifetime. Forgiving others is a good habit that should be nurtured by each and every member of the society.
The Virtue of Contentment
The second virtue, contentment, is the ability to be satisfied with the state whatever is available at a particular time. Being pleased with what is present and faithfully taking care of such is what pertains contentment. Contentment is not a common virtue since in the modern world people have nurtured the desire for more of everything. People are never satisfied with their possessions, relationships and social status in life. They find it difficult to accept their current situation and are willing to seek for more to satisfy their desires. The complexity of contentment has motivated authors like Richard Johnson, Lydia Brownback to write about contentment to help people understand and practice contentment in their day-to-day lives. The virtue of contentment is a mean between two extremes, complacency, and covetousness. Complacency is the feeling of satisfaction with oneself and abilities that prevent one from trying harder even when there is need to improve (Leibowitz 128). Additionally, covetousness involves the excessive desire and greed for material possessions.
The Impact of Covetousness
Many people around the world are highly motivated by the greed to possess that which another person has and live a better life as compared to other members of the society. The motive behind seeking for more than what is available is considered wicked, and the virtue of contentment does not seem to take its place in the lives of those kind of people. Covetousness is the root of many evils in the society today such as murder, corruption, prostitution, robbery, kidnapping, theft (Lockwood 23). Greed always motivates individuals to get involved in these criminal activities. For example, people who are engaged in prostitution are motivated by greed and love of money. They consider prostitution a good thing to do because they want to gain something that they do not have, but their friends have. Taking bribes has always been discouraged in the community and all government institutions (Leibowitz 132). For instance, a young person who after completing college studies has struggled looking for a job for five years while his or her friends have jobs and seem to be having good lives. The jobless individual will be desire to live like his/her employed friends, and will be willing to do anything to get a job even if it means giving a bribe to secure an employment. Bribery itself is a vice, meaning that effects of covetousness disrupt the smooth running of the society.
The Importance of Contentment
What motivates someone to steal is nothing else but greed and lack of satisfaction with what he/she has. The fact that it is morally wrong to be covetous, it is not a chance to become lazy. Some people tend to confuse contentment with complacency, but the latter is a detrimental in their lives (Lockwood 32). For example, there are those people who tend to become so much comfortable with their position in a career such that they do not want to pursue further studies. They tend to forget that they may lose the job any moment and the probability of having a guarantee of job security is negligible. Their complacency at work makes them become incompetent, and they lose the job. A complacent individual does not bother to work hard to attain the job performance targets hence he/she is likely to lose the job.
Complacent individuals are less likely to take more risks because they are not seeking opportunities to grow. For instance, a business person who is satisfied with the level of his business cannot assume the risks associated with business growth. However, another entrepreneur who wishes to expand his/her company is likely to take lots of risks to move the business from one level of operation to a better one. It is through this exposure to risks that a person can learn to be content and improve his/her way of carrying out their activities (Kraut 450). The modern world does not favor complacency, and for individuals to have the joy of life they need to do away with the aspect of complacency in their lives. Besides, people have to be cautious so as to nurture the virtue of contentment and make it a habit. Striking a balance between the two extremes of contentment helps us to achieve maximum satisfaction in our states.
Work cited
Leibowitz, Uri D. "Particularism in Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics." Journal of Moral Philosophy 10.2 (2013): 121-147.
Lockwood, Thornton C. "Habituation, habit, and character in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics." A history of habit: from Aristotle to Bourdieu (2013): 19-36.
Kraut, Richard. "Levels of Argument: A Comparative Study of Plato's “Republic” and Aristotle's “Nicomachean Ethics.”." (2016): 447-450.
