Henry’s parents want him to “become a lawyer” — however, he wants to study poetry and literature. His father states that he will receive no financial aid from him, if he does not see Henry heading for law school. So, he begrudgingly applies and gets accepted to an average law school. He attends, but is clearly not happy and do not really care for the readings and learning about law.
He misses reading poetry, studying philosophy and classical works and he wants to be a writer. Yet, he decides to graduate and aims to pass the bar, which he did. Henry gets a position and now makes 250k a year, but he reflectively looks in the mirror and has become someone else.
Ten years later, he walks away and becomes a poet, his father yells but now he does not care — he is now free and happy and living in the good life.
What would Aristotle say about Henry regarding the good life?
Was Henry virtuous in his reasons for attending law school?
What advice would you give Henry, based on Aristotle’s idea of virtue-based ethics?
Can a person be happy if the reason they do a task is for some other reason then itself? For example, Sue wanted to go to law school and did not mind the long hours and could not wait to try cases. How did Sue differ from Henry based on virtue-based ethics?
