RELFECTION PAPER OF ARISTOTLES PHILOSOPHY ON VIRTUES OF A GOOD MAN

To reflect on a certain philosophy is to understand it at the best of our capability. And to understand something it must have a certain connection with our personal being so that we are able to internalize every single piece of the puzzle. The idea that came to me was just like a silent voice in the back of my head, an idea that has a certain connection to my own personal goal, and that idea was repeatedly saying the phrase seek perfection of character. If I remember correctly it is a phrase from the code of Japan Karate Association. Since hearing that phrase it has been a part of my personal goal to seek my own chara cters perfection. So it boils down to Aristotles philosophy to take me closer to that goal. And to be more specific i have chosen the Virtues of a good man to be the focus of my reflection paper.

The virtues of a good man is made out of 6 main virtues which are: 1. Rule like a good man 2. Obey like a good man 3. The wisdom of a ruler and the prudence of a subject 4. Justice 5. Temperance 6. Courage

Let us tackle it one by one. We will follow the order of the virtues as is provided above. 1. Rule like a good man. It is evident that everyone has their own share in ruling, or to make it more appropriate in our generation, lets use the word, leading. And as we all know it is harder than it seems. When we lead, we do not only take in consideration the weight of the task at hand, but we also take in consideration who the stake holders are and why are we doing it. To be able to lead/ rule like a good man, we need to be selfless and be very wise about our actions, decisions, and the way we talk to our constituents. And there is a lot more to it than what i could indicate here. Now what does ruling like a good man mean? To me it means that everything we do, every single action, every step that we take, would have a great effect to the masses that we serve. So it means that we should be cautious in every move that we make, decisions that we take and words that we say. There are a lot of rulers who had ruled in the past like a good man, like Ghandi, Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher, Lee Kwan Yew (of Singapore). This people ruled for the betterment of their countries. They had moved mountains just to ensure the future of their countries would not be the worst. If only everyone who had the power were able to do what they have done to their countries, then Aristotles philosophy on the aim of society would have been in our reality. Why should we all rule like a good man? There are reasons for why should we rule like a good man. First, is that we would not only be helping ourselves but we would be able to help the whole society that we live in. Second, we would not only be providing a path for the youth, but the generations to follow. Third, a country ruled by a good man, would be able to unite all of their people no matter how different they are. 2. Obeying like a good man. A soldier would obey first before he complains. This would mean that obeying an order would be more important than complaining. How is this related to obeying like a good man? As a subject, we should know the importance of respecting the authorities, respecting in the manner of obeying or following, leading to the fulfilment of a task that takes not only the rulers, but the cooperation of the people or subjects too.

Obeying is not something to be taken lightly. For when we obey an order of authority, we become a part of the task, whether it be good or bad. Nonetheless we should still obey. Imagine a world where everybody is not obeying authorities. And imagine being a ruler that no one follows. Wouldnt it be a very bad kind of society? Where goodness depends on the perspective of every individual? Where they think that whatever benefits them is good. We would not be able to last long in a society where obedience is neglected. It would be like walking on a path that is slowly being eaten away. That is why obedience would be very important to everyone. Specially to us students, if we do not follow specific instructions on how to make this reflection paper, we would not be able to pass this midterms. XD 3. The wisdom of a ruler and the prudence of a subject The wisdom of a ruler is something we could appreciate by the way Aristotle had defined it. He had said that Practical wisdom only is a character of the ruler: it should seem that all other virtue must equally belong to ruler and subject. So what is the great difference of wisdom from all of the other virtues? The difference is that everyone else is able to apply all the other virtues in their daily lives whether they like it or not, but only a true ruler can apply true wisdom when they rule. We can see this in public administration of different rulers, like Hitler for example, although he had used his wisdom in for the cause of ruling the world. He was able to apply wisdom in the actions that he took way before he was defeated. Think about it he was able to out-smart the countries that he had conquered and had not lost the loyalty of his followers to the end. He thought of a race that was above all else, his ideologies were substantial that the people believed and trusted him with their very own lives, because of the way he had showed them that he was able to do what he says, and apply the wisdom of a true ruler in his actions. Although he was not the idealistic kind of ruler that Aristotle had indicated, he was a very wise in everything he did. But what really is in practical wisdom that it is separated from all the other virtues? Maybe it is its uniqueness, in the form that wise men can only perform. For being wise means that you are not vulnerable from being attacked, in any manner. For every other virtue may only be made up of knowledge. Lets take Temperance for example, we may KNOW what it is, and know the ways of applying it. But we will not be able to apply it to the maximum capacity of how a wise ruler would. No lets take a wildly spread phrase about wisdom and knowledge. Whereas, knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit and wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Therefore, wisdom is not just performing something which we do, it is performing beyond the expectation of the people. Wisdom is separated from all other virtues in the way that a ruler who is wise would not be shaken by the multitude of problems he is facing in his daily life. Whereas, in my earlier statement the rulers actions is not only going to affect his life, but the life of thousands of people under his rule. Now, let us talk about the prudence of the subject. Prudence otherwise known as true opinion is different from wisdom, because the opinions of the masses or subjects are based only to what type of information that has been transferred to them. For example through the corporate media, the masses opinion is controlled through what they see. We call this trial by publicity or judging a certain matter because of what we have seen in TV or other sources of information. But as we have all learned some media groups are controlled by the government hence it is becoming more of a bias opinion resulting to the miss interpretation of the masses. 4. Justice Justice had been defined by Aristotle as something based on noble actions. Too many things are said about what and how justice should be. But to me justice is a bit more realistic in Aristotles definition because it entails that justice is not just giving what is due to a person but making that person into something more than what he was. Like let us say a murderer who had killed a noble man. Do you think it is just right that he should die? Or is there something more to what he should be. Then my conclusion, is this, a man has all the paths laid down for him, all he had to do is choose, whether he chooses the wrong path or the right path its up to him. Justice should be for everyone and not only for those who have the money. For those who rule they should not only think about the justice that would benefit them, but of a justice that would benefit all.

5. Temperance On temperance, it is of various forms, one is temperance on greed or how to control the greed that is in every single person. Another is the temperance on anger, which speaks of not meeting emotions with emotions. And there are a lot of other forms of temperance. For me abstinence is the best way for me to do things. When you do not want to be involved in anything that you think is detrimental to you or the society, it is best not to get involved. Temperance for me is letting others wage war, meaning that there are things in this world that we cannot stop from happening, and we should just let it happen and that we do our best not to get involved. A good general always has things planned. It is always best to let the war come to you, for in the circumstances that it arrives at your front door you have more options. The way people think nowadays, as I myself have observed, would rather meet anger with anger, power with power and death with death. They would not stop at anything, to get what they wanted. They would not hear the counsel of their fellow men. They would go to war for the reasons that are only false accusations. They would not be hindered by anything to enrich themselves. Now is this not the type of government that Aristotle and Plato had described as oligarchy? We see it in all of the countries in this world although they claim to be some other kind of government they will always end up in an oligarchical state. Everybody have their own ways of applying temperance but for me, nothing beats the way of stopping yourself from greed, anger, animosity and the like. 6. Courage Of all the virtues of a good man, this seems the hardest for me to digest. For in the course of my whole life, seldom do i have the need for courage. I would admit that i am a coward. That i have not been able to stand up for the changes that i wanted to see. I am scared of what every action that i take may result to. I may say throughout my life i had always been the one who watches, observes, and reads. But i may also say that i am not capable of having courage that is needed to be a good man. This is the hardest for me to write about for i have lived in a world where i can only push my opinions to far, so as to admit defeat when it already stands in our front door. Courage is but a mystery to me, for it would only be a spark of light in the end of the tunnel that would be extinguished. But then in what manner do we know that it is courage that is being practiced and not just show of arrogance? We can answer this by defining courage from arrogance. Arrogance is just claiming that you have courage when all you want is to empress others. But true courage is the one that makes the impossible, possible when it is needed.