Ethics: Approaching Moral Decisions (Contours of Christian Philosophy)

by Arthur F. Holmes

Aristotle saw virtues as habits of mind that can be cultivated. They do not emerge naturally over the course of time, and they sometimes run counter to our seemingly natural tendencies. Nor are they due merely to formal instruction. Discipline and regulation may be conducive to good habits, yet habits of mind are neither unconscious nor altogether involuntary. They develop as a result of deliberation about the choices we constantly make and the ends we desire. We are responsible agents in our own character development. The weak-willed do not act out of ignorance either; they act rather out of emotional distractions that they have never brought themselves to control. But the virtuous act out of good habits of mind internalized by repeated reflection and decision. As Kant put it centuries later, virtues are “considered, firm and continuously purified principles.”[11] I find Aristotle’s account of character development substantially correct but with qualifications, for it is challenged from several points of view.