Aristole’s Virtues and Vices

Aristotle contends that the humans have the ability to have virtues and vices, and the virtue is the mean of the two vices (one of excess and one of deficiency). One example of this is pride. Too much of pride is considered to be arrogance or egoism. Too little of it would be considered to be a lack of self-respect (I can’t think of a single word for it). The mean of it would seem to be a strong-willed person.

My problem with this is that it seems like the “mean” as Aristotle refers to it, often leans closer to one side than another. For example, with kindness, it would seem that it would be better off to have an excess of kindness than to be completely lacking it. For someone who is in excess of it, may get pushed over a lot but still has the capacity to get things done. While someone who has no kindness would simply not engage in human interaction at all. So it would seem that these virtues are subject to each individual. And if that is true, then it means that morality is subject to each individual. Is Aristotle a moral relativist?

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