With Honors
Aristotle viewed virtue as a deposition of character; he saw them as character tendencies and traits for people to act in specific ways. He emphasized that virtue can only be gained by emulating the 'moral exemplars' and practice of the same. Through the practice, the virtues are eventually analyzed and become one's character. A good example is becoming temperate by practicing temperance or becoming courageous by practicing courage ( Brown,1997). Through the practice, virtue will become part of the person and translate to a habit making it his/her character.
Application of Aristotle’s concept that virtue is a disposition of character to the film
In the film, 'With Honors' Harvard roommates from the class of 1994, one female and three males have to re-evaluate their values after an encounter with a homeless man who enters their life in the drama involving a lost thesis found by the homeless man. The application of virtue as a deposition of character is seen in Monty's character; he learned to abandon his snobbishness and see others as people as opposed to things. This is also seen when Kessler convinced the other roommates to take the colorful and homeless character during winter.
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Monty’s Character Change through “Habituation into Virtue”
Monty, one of the Harvard 1994 class students, was pursuing a public policy major and had nothing else in his mind than graduating. He wanted to be ahead of the world; eventually, he threw himself in the basement with Simon Wilder. The two desperately needed each other but did not know it. As Aristotle put it, the virtues can only be gained by emulating the 'moral exemplars' and practice of the same. At the end of this encounter, Monty learned a lot from Simon and became habituated to virtues. Simon had all the answers that Monty needed even though he did not know the questions. In the end, Monty changed for the better and learned to shun his snobbishness and see Simon as a person, not a thing.
Change in the other Characters in the film
All the characters experienced a change at the end of the film. Monty's friends' learned lessons from Simon were very honorable and valuable that eventually changed their characters. Brendan Fraser made Simon and Monty's attachment less believable because of having hurt qualities and brooding presence. Simon was able to view Monty as his son that he left many years ago, and eventually, Pesci and Fraser were able to work perfectly together. Therefore, at the end of the film, most of these characters had learned lessons from Simon, and their characters changed dramatically for the better, the same as Monty's. The emphasis made by Aristotle that virtues are habits are well construed in the movie. The changed perceptions seen in the movie’s characters as a result of habituation amplify Aristotle’s claims about the role of habit in conduct. Each individual experiences a form of character change as they become more virtuous.
Application of Aristotle’s “doctrine of the mean” to the characters and situations in the film
In Aristotle's concept of the mean state, he conceptualized virtue as a mean state. He insisted that rather than being arithmetic, it is a relative situation. He argued that specific feelings or actions were associated and concerned with particular virtues. A good example is anger which is involved with a temper (Urmson, 1988). In the movie, there were rumors around the campus that Wilder was the ghost of a person named Walt Whitman; there was this association mainly because people thought Wilder was a Vagabond soul that traveled a lot over the world. He was dying of lung cancer, but his actions were associated with his virtues and what was happening in his life.
References
Brown, L. (1997). What is" the mean relative to us" in Aristotle's Ethics?. Phronesis , 42 (1), 77-93.
Urmson, J. O. (1988). Aristotle's ethics (Vol. 35). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
With Honors (1994) - IMDb. (, 2020). Retrieved 29 December 2020, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111732/
