Harnessing Aristotle's Virtue Ethics for Character Formation in Nigeria

Abstract

Every human society develops a set of ethical principles that guide the conducts of its members. In the ancient Greek society, various ethical norms were presented; popular among them were deontologism and teleologism. However, these two stood at extremes. This prompted Aristotle to propose an alternative. The Greek philosopher Aristotle introduced the idea that ethics should focus more on how we act, and less on the effects of our actions or the intentions behind them. Aristotle considered basically the virtue of being human in his ethical perspective. For him, virtue ethics has to do with an absolute consideration of the human actor and the recipients of such action. This brought about a distinction between the Aristotelian ethical strand and those of his contemporaries. He conceived ethics not just as a theoretical or philosophical topic to study, but a deep observation of how people actually behave. He also debunked the status quo assertion that ethics is not about “'what if” situations but a practical approach to life and living. Such a perception encourages positive and moral living in the human society. Aristotle's virtue ethics remains timeless even in the contemporary society. Its right interpretation and application can improve contemporary society which has almost gone bereft of morality. It is in view of this that this paper proposes the Aristotelian model of ethics as a recipe for character formation in Nigeria.