Answer:
Aristotle believed that a vicious man can no longer understand virtue or noble actions, as his character and moral compass are deeply corrupted. This moral blindness is likened to Plato's allegory of the cave, where the vicious man is unable to see moral truths that are evident to the virtuous person.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to Aristotle, the vicious man loses the capacity to understand or comprehend the very nature of virtue and the good; his character has been corrupted to such an extent that he cannot even desire the truly noble things in life. Aristotle posits that through habitual engagement in vice, a person's ability to recognize virtuous actions deteriorates, and as such, their moral compass is fundamentally compromised. They are no longer capable of seeing the goodness of virtuous actions or the badness of vices, and thus cannot be guided by the moral truths that virtuous people recognize and live by.
The process of moral decline described by Aristotle is akin to the allegory depicted by Socrates in Plato’s 'Republic,' where a person accustomed to the dark cannot immediately recognize or understand the realities when brought into the light. In this context, the vicious man, akin to a prisoner in a cave, is blinded by his vices and cannot see the moral truths that are as glaring as the sun to the virtuous person. It’s a state of moral blindness wherein the ability to discern right from wrong is severely incapacitated.
In summary, for Aristotle, the ultimate harm is not physical but moral, where the character of a person is so damaged that they can no longer distinguish good from evil, just as someone might be physically unable to see in conditions of extreme light or darkness after a lifetime of residing in the shadows.