Aristotle on Learning by Doing Voluntary Actions

Aristotle says that character virtue, which involves loving the fine, arises from habit, by the doing of certain sorts of actions. I argue that fine action itself, without the help of accounts, enables a learner to come to love the fine. To be fine, action must be voluntary: the agent must contribute something to it and know its circumstantial particulars. It’s when one does actions knowing what one is doing that one is most ready to discover their fineness. Attention to what one is doing is enhanced by the action-descriptions given in the law or by an instructor—not by accounts.