For Aristotle, intellectual virtues correspond to the part of the soul that reasons (directly) and virtues of character correspond to the part of the soul
that listens to reason, namely, the appetitive or desiring part of the soul. One of the key points for understanding Aristotle’s ethics is the relationship he
sees between reason and desire, intellect and character.
A good character comes about from one’s desires being properly habituated. That is, you’ve got to have certain kinds of desires become a habit. And
the way Aristotle characterizes this habituation is as the habituated desire for the beautiful (Greek: to kalon). A virtuous person desires only to do and
create the virtuous, which is at the same time the beautiful, according to Aristotle: Virtuous action is beautiful action.
This is why he says on page 9, “…one who does not delight in beautiful actions is not even a good person….”
One might object against Aristotle that his position is undermined by the idea that “Beauty is the in the eye of the beholder.”
Answer the question below,
Why exactly might beauty’s being in the eye of the beholder be a problem for Aristotle’s position? Do you think it is a problem? Why or why not? In
answering these questions, be sure to explicitly engage the idea of a “habituated desire for the beautiful” and its relationship to virtuous action.