1001Philosophers

Aristotle vs Plato on Virtue

Plato and Aristotle agree that virtue is a stable condition of the well-ordered soul, but they disagree about its structure. Plato's Republic distinguishes the cardinal virtues — wisdom, courage, moderation, justice — and grounds them in the rational rule of the soul's three parts, with the philosopher's virtue ultimately resting on knowledge of the Form of the Good. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics treats virtues as habituated dispositions of character developed through practice, with practical wisdom (phronesis) as their unifying principle and human flourishing (eudaimonia) as their end.

About this topic

Virtue has been a central category of ethics since the Greeks treated it as the excellence proper to a human being. Plato analyzed the cardinal virtues, Aristotle developed virtue ethics as habituated dispositions of character, and Confucian and Buddhist traditions parallel this concern with cultivated moral excellence. Medieval thinkers added the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity to the classical inheritance. The modern revival of virtue ethics in the twentieth century returned attention to character and practical wisdom as the ground of moral life.

For a side-by-side overview of the two philosophers more broadly, see the full Aristotle vs Plato comparison. To browse philosophy more widely on this theme, see the Virtue quotes hub.

Representative quotes on virtue

Aristotle on virtue

  • “Anyone can become angry — that is easy. But to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way — that is not within everybody's power and is not easy.”

    οὕτω δὲ καὶ τὸ μὲν ὀργισθῆναι παντὸς καὶ ῥᾴδιον, καὶ τὸ δοῦναι ἀργύριον καὶ δαπανῆσαι· τὸ δ᾽ ᾧ καὶ ὅσον καὶ ὅτε καὶ οὗ ἕνεκα καὶ ὥς, οὐκέτι παντὸς οὐδὲ ῥᾴδιον

  • Attributed to Aristotle:

    “The good for man is an activity of the soul in conformity with virtue.”

  • Attributed to Aristotle:

    “Happiness is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.”

Plato on virtue

  • “If the very essence of knowledge changes, at the moment of the change to another essence of knowledge there would be no knowledge, and if it is always changing, there will always be no knowledge, and by this reasoning there will be neither anyone to know nor anything to be known. But if there is always that which knows and that which is known —if the beautiful, the good, and all the other verities exist— I do not see how there is any likeness between these conditions of which I am now speaking and flux or motion.”

    440a–b

  • Attributed to Plato:

    “Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.”

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