Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics

1
Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics Lecture 5 On
Happiness. Nichomachus Aristotles son
Ethics stems from Gk ethos a) character in
relation to individuals b) custom in relation
to societies/city states Ethics ? moral theory
Ethics Treatise on Character N.B. Dont
confuse this with modern (Kantian) coneptions
deontological conceptions of morality
2

• 2. Overview of the Argument
• 2.1 Opening Question What is the Good?
  Book1.Chapters1-2.
• Opening Answers
• a) That at which every activity aims (an end).
• b) These can be products/works (erga)
• or activities (energeiai)
• 2.2 The Hierarchy of Goods
• What is the Highest Good?
• The highest good is the good which is
• i) desired for itself and
• ii) not desired for any further/higher good
• iii) the good for which all other goods are
  desired.
• The hierarchy of goods at the apex of which is

3

• There is a hierarchy of goods at the apex of
  which is what is good in itself (or the most
  perfect good, or the most final good, or the most
  self-sufficient good.)
• But is this
• A B C
• M N O
• X Y z
• Or
• A
• M N
• X Y Z
• Are the most perfect/final/self-sufficient goods
  many or one?
• If they are one, can this good really be
  theoretical contemplation?

4

• The Hierarchy of Ends
• Book 1 Chapter 2.
• Aristotle claims that there is a hierarchy of
  ends that is isomorphic with the hierarchy of
  goods. So
• Horsemanship exists for the sake of
• Warfare and Generalship (1094a12)
• Which exists for the sake of peace!
• N.B. Political science the science of the
  things of the polis is the most magesterial
  superordinate science.
• Hence the end of political science will include
  the ends of other sciences within it and so the
  end of the science of politics will be the good
  of man. For though admittedly the good is the
  same for a city as for an individual, still the
  good of the city is apparently a greater and more
  complete/final good to acquire and preserve. For
  while it is satisfactory to acquire and preserve
  the good even for an individual, it is finer and
  more divien to acquire and preserve it for a
  people and for cities. And so, since our
  investigation aims at these goods for an
  individual ad a city, it is a sort of political
  science. (1094b6-12)

5

• Overview of NE
• Initial Answer.
• The highest Good is Happiness.
• What is happiness?
• Book 1 chapters 3-6
• Ruling Out Answers given by Common Opinion.
• Happiness is not the life of gratification and
  pleasure. (1095b15)
• Happiness is not the accumulation of money and
  wealth. (1096a6)
• Happiness is not (just) the life of honour .
  (1095 a22)
• Happiness is not the life of virtue considered as
  a capacity/potential. (1096a1)

6

• N.B. virtue arete excellence
• There are not just moral excellencies or virtues.
  
• The word arete has a perfectly normal non-moral
  meaning.
• A knife has a virtue when it performs its
  function cutting well, i.e. when it is sharp
  and the right size for the purpose.
• Final Answer
• The human good (happiness) is (1098a9)
• an activity of the soul in accordance with
  reason psyches energeia kata logon
• or better
• The human good turns out to be activity
  (energeia) of soul (psyches) expressing virtue
  (kat areten), and if there turns out to be more
  than one virtue, in accordance with the best and
  most perfect. (1098a16-18).
• Question What is the best and most final
  virtue?
• Can it be the theoretical virtue of conemplation
  or is it the practical ethical virtues?

7

• For the sake of
• A. Merely Instrumental Goods
• Some goods exist entirely for the sake of other
  goods.
• A pen exists for the sake of writing, a flute
  for the sake of music.
• Pens and flutes are instrumentally good, good
  only insofar as they are means for bringing about
  other goods.
• B. Intrinsic and Instrumental Goods
• Some goods have intrinsic value. It is good to
  go for a walk. But one can go for a walk in order
  to stay fit. So one and the same activity can be
  an instrumental and intrinsic good.
• C. Intrinsic Non-instrumental Goods
• The highest good exists for the sake of no other
  good, and is the good for the sake of which all
  other goods are pursued.

8

• A B C
• Teleios teleioteros teleiotatos.
• Complete, more complete, most complete.
• Final, more final most final.
• Perfect, more perfect, most perfect.
• What kind of a relation is the for the sake of
  relation?
• A exists for the sake of B when you only do A in
  order to bring about B.
• B exists for the sake of C, because one does B in
  order to bring about C, even though one can also
  do B for its own sake.
• This is an hierarchy it is not symmettrical.
• If A exists for the sake of B, then B does not
  exist for the sake of A.

9

• The for the sake of relationship is partly a
  causal chain of means and ends.
• The hierarchy of for the sake of relations
  bewteen ends implies a kind of chain of value and
  a set of norms for regulating our activities.
• Medicine is an activity performed for the sake
  of health. So good health provides the norms that
  regulate medical practice.

10

• Happiness eudaimonia
• Well-being.
• Human flourishing.
• Being blessed by the Gods.
• Children and animals cannot be eudaimon.
• Eudaimonia is a familiar and ordinary expression
  in Greek not a technical term.
• Eudaimonia does not denote a feeling or state of
  mind, but rather an (objective) property of a
  (complete, human) life.
• Eudaimonia can be achieved normally, only when
  certain threshold conditions are met.
• Those who say that the victim on the rack or the
  man who falls into great nisfortunes is happy if
  he is good, are, whether they mean to or not,
  talking nonsense. VII 13 1153b19-20

11

• The function argument in 1 vii.
• 1. If human beings have a function/work, it will
  be the highest good.
• Every human activity has a function.
• Every ergon work is performed well(or badly) in
  accordance with its spefic excellences/virtues.
• Human being share their biological, and sensory
  functions with animals.
• Only the function of reason and soul do they not
  share with animals.
• The function of the human being must be its life
  activity expressing reason in accordance with
  virtue (its specific excellences).