What Virtue Means to Me...

Another part of this weeks learning plan that I found interesting was the discussion on virtue, meaning “what does it take for an individual human being to be a good person?” I have always struggled with the word virtue. I thought that I understood, but it was hard for me to explain. It helped when the learning plan used Aristotle’s ideas that, “every activity has a final cause”, and “there must be a highest good at which all human activity ultimately aims.” In addition, the learning plan focused on that there must be a balance between reason and desire, logic and emotion; in order to be a happy person. Another way to say this, is that people can be judged by their virtuous acts. In a previous posting I spoke about Dr. Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture. Even though he was dying during this last lecture he was sharing and showing that in the face of death all is not lost. He was encouraging us to live our lives in search of achieving our dreams, to act virtuously. He was motivating us to live, while he was facing the end of his life. I really encourage you to watch the last lecture “Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”, it helped me understand what virtue really means.