Aristotelian :: essays research papers

Can a Child be Virtuous?In this paper I will argue against Aristotle and hisidea that children cannot be virtuous, as we discussed inclass. I will do this by giving concrete examples that acertain widespread morality studys in this virtuosity of achild. I will too use a more common example that occurs every(prenominal)the time in America.Aristotle says that children cannot be virtuous becausevirtues be something that, to be acquired must be undecomposedover and over again. A child has not had enough practice,time or understanding of what he is doing to be consideredvirtuous. However, I think that there are virtuous children,and that not only A thereforeian gentlemen are virtuous, butsome other people also, these including children.For my first example let us consider the religion ofTibet. These people elect a child, in fact a newborn to bein charge of their entire religion, this child is the DaliLama. They think that this child is holy, and pure. plainly they think that he is good, and virtuous. He hasthe most power in their entire religious system of beliefs.There are many many people who believe in this religion, andhave done so for centuries. This child is trained from avery young age on and is selected to lead a virtuous life.He practices things that Aristotle would view as virtuous,for example, courage, pride, exclusivelyice, and temperance. Thischild could easily get in more practice time of virtuousactivity than the average person, even more than a personwho is on their way to being virtuous who is an adult.According to Aristotles own beliefs, there is a certainamount of virtuous activity that must be done to become avirtuous person. This child could easily do as many virtuousactivities by the age of 10 as say someone who is 20 inanother situation. That is one problem with Aristotlestheory, when does the virtuous activity start adding up sothat one whitethorn become a virtuous person? How long is someoneconsidered a child? Do his activities not count until hereaches a certain age, and then suddenly there is abreakthrough and they start to count? I think not. A goodact is a good act no matter what the age, if the intent iscorrect.Those who wish to support Aristotle could in a certaincontext use the Christian religion to counter the Dali Lamaexample. Christians believe that all men are born sinfuland not good. There is no way that a child is any betterthan anyone else. The Dali Lama would be considered just