Plato seems to have been pessimistic about how most people stand with regard to virtue. However, unlike the Stoics, he did not conclude that most people are vicious. Rather, as we know from discussions across several dialogues, he countenanced decent ethical conditions that fall short of genuine virtue, which he limited to the philosopher. Despite Plato's obvious interest in this issue, commentators rarely follow his lead by investigating in detail such conditions in the dialogues. When scholars do investigate what kind of virtue, if any, Plato thinks is open to non-philosophers, they typically look to the Republic. But in the Republic Plato sets out an ideal city; therefore, the virtue available to non-philosophers there is likely different from what he thinks is available to them in the real world. If we want to determine Plato's thoughts about the virtue of actual non-philosophers, we must look elsewhere. In this paper, I set my sights on the Phaedo.

I argue that Aristotle believes that virtue comes in degrees. After dispatching with initial concerns for the view, I argue that we should accept it because Aristotle conceives of heroic virtue as the highest degree of virtue. I support this interpretation of heroic virtue by considering and rejecting alternative readings, then showing that heroic virtue characterized as the highest degree of virtue is consistent with the doctrine of the mean. In this paper I investigate two issues regarding Aristotle's ethical landscape in his Nicomachean Ethics, both of which have received less scholarly attention than they deserve. The first is whether Aristotle believes that there are degrees of true human virtue, henceforth, 'DOV'. 1 The second is how Aristotle conceives of heroic virtue. 2 I take these two issues to be intimately related-a claim I argue for below-so that any light shed on one of them will likewise illuminate the other. My investigation proceeds as follows. First, I consider the question of whether Aristotle endorses DOV. After raising and replying to some apparent problems with an affirmative answer, I argue that since Aristotle holds that there are people who have heroic virtue, that is, I'll claim, have the highest degree of virtue, he is committed to DOV. Because my argument relies on the claim that heroic virtue is the highest degree of virtue, I turn next to a defense of this interpretation. To this end, I examine alternative interpretations of heroic virtue. After arguing that each alternative interpretation fails, I detail my account of heroic virtue as 1 Although some commentators seem to agree with my claim that Aristotle endorses DOV (e.g.

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I argue that Plato distinguishes between personal immortality and immortality of the soul. I begin by criticizing the consensus view that Plato identifies the person and the soul. I then turn to the issue of immortality. By considering passages from Symposium and Timaeus, I make the case that Plato thinks that while the soul is immortal by nature, if a person is going to be immortal, they must become so. Finally, I argue that Plato has a psychological continuity approach to personal identity. Thus, for Plato, a person becomes immortal by avoiding reincarnation and securing for themselves psychological continuity forever.