Final answer:
Virtuous people choose the right thing to do through a blend of habit, knowledge of the good, and character development aimed at balancing virtues between excess and deficiency. It involves reflection, self-awareness, and practical experience guided by reason.
Step-by-step explanation:
How exactly do virtuous people choose the right thing to do? To answer this, we delve into the realm of virtue ethics, which is a character-centered approach to morality. Unlike utilitarianism, which looks to consequences, or deontology, which adheres to moral rules, virtue ethics argues that right action flows from good character traits or dispositions.
Aristotle's view suggests that virtuous people develop through habit, reflecting on their actions, continuously practicing doing what's right, and getting better at it over time. This practice leads to a familiarity with choosing and enacting the proper action supported by reason. As Socrates noted, knowing the good is key to choosing it, since we always choose what we perceive to be the best for us. Evil, therefore, comes from ignorance; to address it, one must be educated about what truly constitutes good.
Political philosophers also focus on the idea that a good person and citizen exhibits virtues like bravery and integrity, but they also study the limits of such virtues to avoid extremes like foolhardiness or rashness. Thus, cultivating virtues is about finding a balance, the mean between two vice states of deficiency and excess, as described by Aristotle.
In summary, virtuous people choose the right thing through a combination of habit, knowledge of the good, and the continual development of character aligned with the mean or intermediate state regarding feelings and actions. This approach leads to human flourishing or eudaimonia, characterized by rationality and excellence in character.