Ethics is basically a learned habit of behavior.  —  Aristotle.

Virtue is its own reward.  —  Plato.

Plato:  Welcome, Aristotle!  It’s been a while since I have seen you at the Academy.

Aristotle:  And it is good to see you as well my teacher.  And how have things been?

P:  I hear that you have had the honor of instructing the great Alexander in philosophy and morals.  How has that suited you?

A:  Alexander is a man of action and, ultimately, had little time for philosophic instruction.  And what about your trip to Syracuse?  Have you had the same experience as myself with ___________ or have the gods looked down and smiled upon you and gave you a willing and able “Philosopher-King” to groom in __________?  I am all ears.

Dialogue: Plato and Aristotle on Happiness, and Whether a Good Man be harmed by a Bad Man?

P:  As with you, my so-called “student-Philosopher-King” was not ready to engage in dialectics and discover Truth for himself, so—since, as you know, I do not believe that “teaching” is possible—there was no point in me remaining there, so I have returned to Athens and the Academy to be with those willing fellow companions who are eagar to “teach” themselves.

A:  Do you still believe that “wisdom” is accessible to literally everyone or, like me, do you believe that different people have different abilities and therefore some are necessarily excluded from ever possibly becoming “wise”?

P:  Of course, as you know, Aristotle, we have radically different definitions of “wisdom.”  I am absolutely convinced that everyone can be wise.  All they simply need to do is recognise the limitations to their knowledge—not presume to know things they do not know—and they thus can be considered “wise.”  So, given my definition of “wisdom,” a king or theoretical physicist may each be considered fools if they believe that because one is a king and the other a deeply learned scientist that therefore each knows truths outside of their limited area of expertise as well.  A mongoloid or Down’s Syndrome child, on the other hand, who recognises and does not venture beyond his or her limited field of knowledge–however trunchated–may justly be considered “wise” instead. 

A:  Tosh!  Tosh!  No one believes that a person who is mentally limited can be “wise,”  that is ridiculous. 

P:  If what you say is correct, then who is in fact “mentally limited,” the “wise” and intellectually humble Mongoloid or the over-reaching, proud, and full-of-themselves masses?!!! 

A:  I guess, as always, we will have to agree to disagree.  So what brings you to the Acropolis today?  As always, trying to test your wits against “those-who-think-they-know” and take pleasure and enjoyment in embarrassing and humiliating them intellectually or are you here for some other reason?  

P:  Of course I do not take “pleasure and enjoyment” in showing allegedly “wise” persons that they are in fact fools—exactly the opposite.  I would that the world be populated with knowledgeable and wise interlocutors immune and superior to my philosophic interrogations, but—unfortunately, very unfortunately!!!—that is not the case today.  In the future, perhaps, but not tody.

A:  So, what shall you and I discuss today?  I assume, being impoverished but with time on your hands, you and I can enjoy a good, educational, and pleasurable conversation.  That being so, what shall we discuss today?

P:  I propose we discuss what, in various permutations, I virtually always discuss, namely, why should a good man be good and not evil—especially if the rewards for being evil are many and varried whereas the so-called “reward” for being good is, as many people believe, intangible and non-existent?  And, as a secondary topic, what brings “happiness” to a person?  Are you agreed, and shall we begin?

A:  I can always count on you to ask the deepest questions. I believe that this is one reason your fellow-students at the Academy consider you a better philosopher than myself, not because you have better answers but because you ask better questions.  Yes, let’s begin, and in true Socratic fashion let’s begin by defining our terms. 

     Ultimately, we are discussing what it means to be “virtuous.”  Today, of course, the definition of the word “virtue” is trunchated.  “Virtue” is associated, in particular, with essentially sexual connotations.  To call someone “virtuous” today is to label them as “chaste,” “virginal,” “sexually continant,” or “faithfully monogamous,” but as we both know, historically, that has not always been the case.  “Virtue” comes from the Latin for “manliness”—as in “virility”—and this itself derives from the Latin (?) for “excellence.”  In other words, to be “virtuous” in the ancient world meant, especially, to be an excellent example, a paradigm, of true honorable manliness—a manliness to be emulated–and not merely someone who is sexually continent. 

     Of course today morality is placed on its head—upside down.  Few people, especially young men, wish to be labeled “virtuous.”  It connotes sexualy inexperience, something most all adolescent boys (and girls as well) feel embarrassed to acknowledge.  On the contrary, sexual promiscuity is held up to be a universally desirable goal, a belief widely peddled throughout the Jewish-controlled Media.  Granted, sexual activity is pleasurable and can bring two people closer together emotionally and psychologically, which is certainly a good thing, but there is more to the story.  In the dominant Jewish moral vocabulary as promulgated in the Jewish-dominated Western Media, the pleasures of sex are inextricably linked with the (fuzzy) Western notion of “love.”  If someone engages in pleasurable sex with someone (and women/girls are especially prone to this) then that physical pleasure is associated with being in love.  The “high” of experiencing this feeling is almost universally interpreted as being a true manifestation and earmark of “being in love.”  Now here is where the problem comes in:  what happens when—and it will always inevitably happen—that the psychic “high” of the experience of having sex dissipates and wanes?  What do many people—epecially young people—make of this?  Naturally enough, with the gradual diminishment of the sexual “high,” the parties to this once oceanic feeling of alleged “never-ending” psycho-sexual pleasure will come to believe that, in the proportion that the pleasure ebbs, so also their feelings of love for one another likewise ebbs as well.  Is it any surprise that sexual promiscuity and divorce are so commonplace today?  Of course not!!!  I am certainly not saying that all sex needs to lead to children or marriage, only that people see sex in its proper context (and use contraceptives appropriately).

     Anyway, with this necessary preface now complete, we can address the the main topic at hand.

P:  Thank you, Aristotle, for “clearing away some of the verbal underbrush,” so to speak, so we are not misled by ambiguity and imprecise, fuzzy thinking.  Yes, let us begin.

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2025/06/28/dialogue-plato-and-aristotle-on-happiness-and-whether-a-good-man-be-harmed-by-a-bad-man/

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