According to Aristotle, the highest virtue of man is reason. He believes reason is what separates us from other living beings. Without reason, we would be no different than animals living on instinct. To understand exactly what he means, we must understand how Aristotle defines virtue. Virtue, according to Aristotle, is the excellence of function. Everything has a specific function and performing that function with excellence leads to having virtue. He believes the unique human function is the ability to reason.
Aristotle also goes on to explain that having virtue is how we attain happiness. So if we are not performing our function with excellence we cannot possibly be happy. For example, the function of a chair is to support those who sit on it, if a chair has three legs and can not even stand on its own the chair can not have virtue. If the chair could feel happiness, it could not possibly be happy because it is performing its function poorly.
Epicurus had a......
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