After Aristotle instructs us about how to become virtuous in Book II of the Nicomachean Ethics he concludes that "we should lean sometimes in the direction of excess and sometimes in the direction of deficiency, for by doing so we shall most easily attain the mean and goodness." Some would interpret by this that Aristotle believes that the training or effort by which one is brought to the mean, which is virtue, involves doing what …
showed first 75 words of 2082 total

showed last 75 words of 2082 total
…what is bad. Thus, by applying Aristotle's definition of virtue to his process for becoming virtuous, we have shown that Aristotle actually instructs us to do good instead of bad things, and that it is because of our obscured vision that it appears that he is telling us to do bad things. So although bringing about good from evil only belongs to God, we try to imitate him, if only equivocally, even in this matter.