Aristotle’s Ethics

Aristotle’s Approach to Ethics

Practical: How can I live a fulfilling life?

Thesis: virtue (arete) = key to a good life

Continues Socratic theme, ties in to idea of “telos” (end)

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim.

1st Question: Is there a Purpose to Life?

Do/should we aim at:• One chief good = Pleasure? Wealth? Success? Integrity?

Knowledge? Excellence? Serving or knowing God? • A combination of these? • Or is there no governing purpose, because life is just

“whatever we make it”? (Sartre) or “a succession of desire after desire, which endeth in death” (Hobbes)

1. If there is some end of the things we do, which we desire for its own sake (all else desired for the sake of this), and

2. If we do not choose everything for the sake of something else (for then our desire would be empty and vain),

3. Clearly this must = the good and chief good.

1: If human life has a telos, it is the good

Will not the knowledge of it have a great influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit on what is right?

2: The telos of human life = eudaimonia

There is general agreement that it is happiness (eudaimonia), and all identify living well and doing well with being happy; but with regard to what happiness is they differ, and the ordinary man does not give the same account as the wise…

Note: English “happiness” can mean:1. Short term emotion caused by satisfaction of desire (subjective feeling)2. Long term state caused by self-fulfillment = Greek eudaimonia (objective ‘being’)Aristotle’s argument depends on happiness #2

2nd Question: Is Happiness Fleeting or Lasting?

•Fleeting: • happiness depends on fortune and values; both

change – image of rolling ball

•Lasting: • ‘fulfillment’ = achievement grounded in lasting

values. It endures misfortune – image of archer

Three life-goals Aristotle rejects most men seem to identify the good, or happiness,

with pleasure; which is why they love the life of enjoyment… [and] are slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts

people of superior refinement and active disposition identify happiness with honor and esteem, the end of the political life, but it seems superficial, since it is thought to depend on those who bestow honor, but the good we intuit is something proper to a man and not easily taken from him.

The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else.

Qualities the life-goal must have

Finality Now we call “final without

qualification” that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else…Now happiness we choose always for itself …but honor, pleasure, reason, and every virtue we choose indeed for themselves …but we choose them also for the sake of happiness…

Self-sufficiency The final good is also thought

to be self-sufficient. Now by self-sufficient we do not mean a solitary life, but that which when isolated makes life desirable and lacking in nothing; and such we think happiness to be…

Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action.

Basic Argument (NE I.1-4)1. If there is some good we choose for its own sake,

and everything else is desired for the sake of this, this must be the chief human good.

2. We do not choose everything for the sake of something else (b/c then desire would be infinite and in vain). (I.2 and II-X)

3. We choose happiness (eudaimonia) for its own sake and other things for it. (I.4, 7)

4. Therefore, eudaimonia is the good for human beings. (I.4)

But what is “eudaimonia” (fulfilling happiness)?

The Function (ergon) Argument (I.7)

1. The internal good of each species/art lies in “doing its function well”

2. The distinctive human function is “rational activity [in a full life]” (= planning and living a complete life)

3. Therefore happiness = “rational activity according to virtue”

For all things that have a function or activity, the good is thought to reside in the function, so for man, if he has a function. Life seems to be common even to plants…a life of perception seems to be common to every animal. There remains, then, an active life of the element that has a rational principle … Now if the function of man is an activity of soul which follows or implies a rational principle, the human good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete…in a complete life.

The Good for Man = Eudaimonia

Final & sufficient in itself = a fulfilling human life Human life = rational,

social, physical functions Defn = “rational activity

with virtue” (I.7)– Simple activity = possibly

more intense, e.g. tackling– Complex activity = more

satisfying, e.g. coaching– Can this be applied to

one’s life as a whole?

3rd Question: Is there a “defining human activity”?

Is the “defining human activity” = • Thought – like creating works of science or art or philosophy• Practical action – like creating a family or state• Or there no defining human activity?

• Aristotle: = reason and choice directed toward living a ‘truly [objectively] fulfilling’ life [involved in important human practices and social roles]

Two theories of “the good”Pleasure (Hedonism)

Features– Short-term satisfaction– Emotional state– Quantitative/relative to feeling– Often possessive or passive

Transient: “Felicity is the satisfaction of desire after desire, which endeth only in death.”

Relative to individual desires Subjective:

– Based on personal preferences– Depends on ability and good

fortune to fulfill desires

Situational: involves person partially or for a short while

Happiness (Eudaimonism)

Features– Long term satisfaction– State of mind/being– Qualitative/relative to ‘being’– Active or involving action, choice

Final: “[It] is desirable in itself, not for something else…[it] makes life desirable, lacking nothing.”

Universal, good for all humans Objective:

– based on rational human nature/actualization

– Grounded in the virtues

Comprehensive: involves whole person and is enduring

Virtue (arete) and Human Development (I.13)

Virtues of character– Courage [war/soldier]– Temperance[desire/family]– Justice [community/citizen]

Virtues of intellect– Practical wisdom– Theoretical wisdom

Interpersonal virtue:– Friendship (philia)

Two forms of “good life”– Life of action– Life of contemplation

3 Moral Stages:• Mature, rational self

• stable character/values

• deliberates, chooses• Social, pre-adult

• guided by honor, shame

• Immature, childish• Acts on impulse• Is inconsistent

Moral Ed changes: • emotional ego • rational, socially

responsible person (= achievement)

Major Claims in Book I Ethics = quest for

objective, lasting good Good = happiness-in-

rational activity (“flourishing self-actualization”)

Key to human flourishing = pursuit & achievements of virtue or excellence

Human nature universal contexts of human life call for ‘virtue’