Rational Decision between Intellectual and Practical Virtues

In class, we discussed practical and intellectual virtue and which each philosopher though would be better. While practical virtue is based on actions and experiences, intellectual knowledge is based on knowledge gained through research or an observation one would make without actually experiencing whatever the subject is. Plate suggested that it is better to actually have wisdom before doing something, than figuring that experience after the time has come and a person has had a negative experience. Aristotle believes that one must have experience to be a professional.

You could argue the accuracy of both statements. For example, if you were going to be scuba diving deep into the ocean, you must first learn about scuba diving. You need to know all about the necessary gear needed to go into the water, the water pressure and how much is too much before you go where the pressure is too high. You need to know about the risks and how to prevent anything bad that could happen that could potentially result in death.

 

Another example would be knowing how to ride a bike. You cannot really read about how to ride a bike; you just get on the bike and attempt to balance as you pedal. Since Aristotle says virtues are not innate and one must learn them, someone who is trying to ride a bike have the experience of trial and error to learn how to successfully ride their bike.

 

If you mix both of their ideas, you have a harmony between ration and virtue. Virtue is the state that decides decisions. If you make rational virtues, you are deciding within the mean of gaining knowledge and experience. If you want to conduct an experiment, you should research the topic and from that, you should be able to make an experiment based off what you have learned. This is making the rational decision to learn what someone else has