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Writing assignment: Virtue Ethics
In 500 words or more (no less), explain how the doctrine of the mean works for Aristotle’s twelve virtues (not including the intellectual virtues). You may use examples, but you will still need to include a full scholarly definition of each, with commentary. You may use any scholarly source other than a dictionary, to include online video lectures. You may use Wikipedia as a starting point, but be aware that Wikipedia is not a scholarly source and therefore can never be quoted in your paper. You will need to include in-text citations in your essay (last name, date, pg#) along with an APA formatted References page. You can find tools and examples of APA citation formats at the Purdue University Online Writing Lab.
Writing assignment: Virtue Ethics Answer
Explain how the doctrine of the mean works for Aristotle’s twelve virtues
The Doctrine of the Mean, which asserts that every virtue is a mean between the evil extremes of excess and insufficiency, is one of the most known and disputed sections of Aristotle’s Ethics. As Aristotle himself points out, this is not a rigorous rule, there is no specific formula by which we can calculate exactly where this mean sits, owing to the fact that the mean will change for various persons. Aristotle’s view of virtue as something taught by habit rather than logic makes a lot of sense in practice.