Self-love as a Virtue: An Aristotle-Based Reading

Abstract

One of the most important debates of moral philosophy is the place of emotions in morality. In this article, the object of love will be discussed in terms of the fact that it is the person who loves himself/herself, that is, the problem of self-love being a virtue. Self-love is often used in the same sense as selfishness, so its place in morality becomes problematic. Debates about self-love date back to Aristotle historically. Aristotle distinguishes between two types of self-love: The first is self-love, which is called selfishness in the study, which is owned by people who feel no moral concerns. The second is the true self-love of people who aim to lead a virtuous life. This distinction between two types of self-love reveals the difference between self-love and selfishness and includes altruistic, or selfless, actions within the scope of self-love. In this article, it is claimed that self-love is a virtue. Within the framework of this claim, it will be discussed whether it is possible to apply Aristotle's concept of mean to self-love, that is, to position self-love as the mean of selfishness and altruism.