Depth 1 · 34 s
Like the piano
Mei's piano got easier with practice - and so did saying sorry first. Aristotle thought we become good the way we learn a skill, by doing good things again and again until they become habits.
About this video
Mei is learning the piano. On the first day her fingers were slow and clumsy; after a year of practice she plays without thinking about each note. Mei has noticed something else too: last month she found it hard to say sorry first after an argument. She has done it three times since, and each time it was a little easier. Is being good something you can practise, like the piano?
Aristotle thought so. In his book on ethics he wrote that we become fair by doing fair things and brave by doing brave things, in the same way that we become builders by building and musicians by playing music. Nobody is born brave or born honest; people become brave or honest, little by little, through what they do. Something you do so often that it becomes easy, or even automatic, is a habit, and Aristotle's idea is that virtues are good habits, not just of action but of seeing and feeling. At first telling the truth when it is awkward feels hard; with practice it becomes part of who you are.
Bad habits grow the same way. Someone who tells one small lie to get out of trouble finds the second one easier, and the tenth easier still. We become what we do again and again; each kind act makes the next one easier; so small, everyday choices shape our character.
Musicians learn by watching good musicians, and Aristotle thought the same of character: we learn by watching good people. Someone whose way of living you admire and learn from is a role model; Mei learned to say sorry first partly by watching her older brother. So character isn't fixed. If you are not as patient or as brave as you would like to be, that is not the end of the story. It is the start of practice. This video goes with the Practice Makes Character lesson of Ethics Level 1 on Knaph.
This video shows depth 1 of Practice and character.
Learn Practice and characterTranscript
- 0:00Mei's fingers were slow at first. After a year, the piano is easy.
- 0:05Saying sorry first was hard. Each time since, it got a little easier.
- 0:11Aristotle said we become brave by doing brave things. Virtues are habits.
- 0:17Bad habits grow the same way. One small lie makes the next easier.
- 0:23We learn from people we admire. Character isn't fixed.
- 0:29Being good is something you practise.