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Articles

Moral Philosophy & Being Good

Charlie White asks, what’s the purpose of moral philosophy? Can it take us to a good place?

“The present inquiry does not aim at theoretical knowledge like the others, for we are inquiring not in order to know what virtue is, but in order to become good, since otherwise our inquiry would have been of no use.”
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

Studying moral philosophy/ethics should enable us to become better people. It should give us the ability to understand the ways in which our thoughts and actions affect others, enabling us to think critically about how we can live the best lives possible. Moreover, we would hope that any moral philosophy we have studied would make us want to act well, even if we’re not always able to do so. If studying moral philosophy does not produce any of these results, then surely we must ask, what is the point of it?

Aristotle observes that musicians can only become musicians by playing musical instruments.

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