Philosophy - Nicomachean Ethics

Why is there no exact truth in ethics?

Ethics is about decision about the particulars about situations so general rules do not apply to particular situations so there are no exact truths (like in science)— particular situations contain vagueness and uncertainty.

Why does the political scientist, according to Aristotle, need to study ethics? 

Political science is meant to improve human life, the political scientist should seek to improve human life and to do so they must know the conditions and elements of a good human life. can't do political science without knowledge of human flourishing. [handout 2]

Why can’t everybody benefit from lectures on ethics (according to Aristotle)?  

Not everyone can benefit from political science because good character does not come from simply hearing arguments. Change requires action and the virtue we acquire from habituation. To be prudent, we must also have the life experience you get from past action. You can benefit from lectures on ethics but first you must bring a commitment to the right topics. [handout 2]

Why does the analysis of motives of action lead to the conclusion that our choices must be motivated by some (at least one) final end?

We need a final goal because otherwise it leads to infinite regress. Means will just point to means at some point you have to get to point where it is something you choose for its own sake (intrinsically motivating) which leads us to the ultimate end, eudaimonia. [Handout 3-a] 

What are the threefold division of goods or goals in NE I.7 (§§3-5)?

Class A goods: intrinsic goods— an end, or ends, desirable only for its own sake and never for the sake of something else.

Class B goods: intrinsic and instrumental goods— ends that are desirable both in themselves (as final goals) and for the sake of some other end.

Class C goods: instrumental goods— ends that are desirable only as a means to some other end.

How can a person pursue more than one ‘final goal’ and, at the same time, one overarching final goal?

Some final goals facilitate the overarching final goal of eudaemonia. The goal of acting virtuously are the building blocks for the ultimate final goal of eudaemonia.Caring about other people and goals related to the virtues have to be both intrinsic and instrumental because they lead to the only intrinsic good of eudaimonia but they possess an intrinsic value. They also possess value in themselves.

What is the difference between egoistic and altruistic motives for action?

Egoistic motives are self regarding. They are for your own benefit which can lead you to want other people to not succeed. For example, competing for an apartment, you do not want the other people to succeed or being graded by a curve. While altruistic motives are outwardly regarding. They presupposes the social nature of humanity.

How could Aristotle’s eudaimonism integrate altruistic motives?

Aristotle holds that other people and their well-being can also function as intrinsic and instrumental goods. “Someone
can genuinely care about the well-being of his or her friends, or about the common good, and at the same time also appreciate the fact that friendship, or social engagement, are aspects of a virtuously lived good life and hence conducive to one’s own eudaimonia.“ [Handout 3-b]

What is the definition human eudaimonia produced by the argument from the “human function” in NE I.7?

“the soul’s activity in accord with virtue/excellence—or in accord with the
most perfect/complete virtue (if there is more than one virtue)“ [handout 4]

What, specifically, is the role of notions of “virtue” and a life of “reason” in this connection?

life of reason is any activities go well if they are performed in accordance with the virtues where rationality is shaped through character virtue.

virtue is the disposition to do action well with the virtues [Handout 4]

Why does he emphasize the notion of “activity” in the function argument?

Activity is related to virtue as a disposition which is meant to be manifested in activity. That is, Virtue is not the end goal but is what empowers us to perform well and live a good life. [Handout 4]

How do external goods relate to virtuous activity?

External goods are instrumental and serve as the proper circumstances and tools of virtuous actions. They provide the means to act well, but are not required for virtue. For example, the wealthy person who appreciates money and is generous would not lose the virtue by going broke. [Handouts 4, 5]

How is pleasure/joy a part of eudaimonia?

Virtuous activity is pleasant or joyful if you have the requisite means for acting: if the virtuous activity can be in the right tools and environment, then it is pleasant. For example, being brave but confined to bed is not pleasant. If the virtuous activity can be in the right tools and environment, then it is pleasant. Also, pleasure supervenes on a good life– it is not a goal for acting virtuously but follows from it making it more perfect [Handouts 5, 13] 

Aristotle’s theory of “virtue” (or excellence) uses a distinction between several “parts of the soul.” What parts does he distinguish, and how is this division relevant for his ethical theory?

The part of the soul that accounts for the emotive desires and appetites can be classified both as rational (because "it shares in reason," I.13, §15) and as non-rational (since it is not reason and can even
antagonize reason). Directly tied to character/ethical virtues.

While the intellectual virtues concern the performance of our rational faculty narrowly speaking, the virtues of character shape our emotional reactions and appetitive urges. Directly tied to intellectual virtues.

The vegetative part is concerned with biological functions and not rationality or virtues.

[Handout 6, page 1]

How are character virtues acquired? What is the function of laws and social norms in this regard? 

habituation is the process by which virtues become our second nature as we are only by nature able to acquire virtues. As children, we are like hedonists and are given punishment to reaffirm the right behaviors (10.9). Inevitably the expectation of punishment becomes a sense of shame which ultimately leads our appetites to be cultivated to the right urges and deny the wrong ones or a second nature for virtue. Social laws and norms (written and unwritten) provide the right environment for people to get habituated and for virtue to become their second nature. [Handout 6, page 2]

What is the function of character virtues, and what do they have to do with how, and when, we experience pleasure or pain?

The function is to learn and enjoy the right kind of actions and to become naturally suited to the right actions. The virtues regulate how we experience pleasure and pain, we find pleasure in doing good things and pain in bad things. This points us to virtue as a mean by aiming at the mean between excess and deficiency in concrete situations (The doctrine of the mean: the preservation of the intermediate condition of virtue). [Handouts 6-8] 

What makes an action virtuous? Reflect, in this connection, on the difference between internal and external correctness of an action.

An action is virtuous if and only if

1. the action is right (= external correctness) and

2. the agent is in the right (intellectual, emotional) state when acting (= internal correctness)— which means that the agent knows/understands, the agent’s action flows from a decision which chooses the action “because of itself,” and the agent’s correct decision is grounded in a firm and unchanging state/disposition of the soul (virtue)

external criteria: when you're acting like a truly just person would

internal criteria: when you're acting like a truly just person for the self-regarding motivations of not wanting to act against virtue

[Handout 7] 

Why does Aristotle describe character virtue as a mean, and how is aiming at the mean connected to practical reasoning? [Handout 8] 

Virtue is a mean by aiming at the mean between excess and deficiency in concrete situations and practical reasoning is the used in deliberation to find the best means for the virtuous end.

What is the difference between a character virtue such as temperance and ‘continence’?

"(Simple) continence" is the case of a person who has "intemperate" desires, but is also aware of the fact that they should not give in to these desires and defeats these desires. “Incontinence” (akrasia, lack of self-control, ‘weakness of will’) is the case of a person who gives in to their intemperate desires against their better judgment.

The continence person is conflicted and their desires and appetites are not fully cultivated, below the level of virtue and still better than incontinence.

What is required for an action to be voluntary?

Actions that you elect to do regardless of whether you do them without deliberating. The criteria of voluntary action are agency resides in us and we are not ignorant of the particulars of the action.

[Handout 9-a]

How can either external force or ignorance get in the way of voluntariness?

External force and ignorance restrict the voluntariness of action when it violates the criteria of voluntary action. Mixed actions are those when force is there but we have agency or when higher constraints than usual. For instance, getting mugged “give me your wallet or else.”

[Handout 9-a]

What do we deliberate about, and what is the connection between deliberation and decision?

We deliberate about what is up to us. Namely, something we can do or forego that is within our power. We do not deliberate about what is outside of our hands; things where the outcome is still unclear and the right action still defined (about means not ends). For example, deliberating about solar flares out of our control. A decision happens as the conclusion of deliberation.

[Handout 9-b] 

Explain why the fact that our decisions are shaped by our character creates a philosophical problem for the assumption that we are responsible for our actions. How does Aristotle try to resolve this problem?

Character determines decisions and actions and we can influence how our character develops– we have influence on how we are habituated therefore we are still responsible for our actions. We have to attribute agency to ourselves to attribute it to others without this we give up on the belief that our action arises from deliberation (we are the principle of our actions).

[Handout 10]

How is productive knowledge (“craft knowledge”) different from prudence?

Prudence is the virtue of good deliberation which identifies the concrete actions that promote virtuous goals. The prudent person finds the right means for the right goals.

Craft knowledge produces “external” ends and prudence produces means where craft knowledge serves an external good. The crafty cobbler produces shoes.

[Handout 11] 

Why does prudence rank higher than any form of productive knowledge?

Prudence ranks higher than any form of productive knowledge because prudence serves good life activity such as the goodness of our actions; prudent person realizes good conduct, etc.

[Handout 11] 

What is the task of the virtue of prudence?

the task of prudence is to identify the concrete actions that promote virtuous goals using experience.

[Handout 11]

How does prudence differ from mere cleverness?

cleverness is just to know the right means to any ends while prudence is specific to the right means to the right goals [Handout 11]

Why does prudence presuppose the character virtues?

You cannot have any specific character virtue without also having prudence (since prudence is indispensable for virtuous action). You cannot be called prudent unless you aim at the right kinds of goals thanks to your character virtues. Hence, a truly prudent person cannot lack any of the character virtues. [Handout 12-a]

Aristotle claims that the value (i.e., goodness or badness) of a pleasure depends on the value of the underlying activity, and that pleasures linked to different kinds of activity are not commensurate. How do these assumptions separate him from hedonism?  

Pleasures are not cross quantifiable; hedonism relies on calculation, we cannot calculate what cannot be quantifiably compared. Pleasure is good all things being equal, but some pleasures are of a different kind. Value of pleasure depends on the value of the activity there are two kinds: base vs. virtuous. The inherent goodness of an activity is the reason for action and pleasure accompanies it.

[Handout 13]

In NE X.7-8, Aristotle distinguishes between an activity that is the highest fulfillment of our intellectual faculties and an activity that is the highest fulfillment of our human nature as body-soul compounds. What are these activities, and why does he claim that the former activity ranks higher?

The highest fulfillment of our human nature as body-soul compounds is a virtuous activity because it leads to eudaemonia. The life of study has the haughtiest fulfillment of our intellectual faculties because it is concerned with understanding what is most worthy (not humans) making it higher than virtuous activity (and making the most complete virtue).

[Handout 14] 

What is Aristotle’s attitude toward self-love?

Rational self love and selfishness are connected to different parts of the soul. Self love is responsibility for living well and promotes your own virtue and serves the common good. Selfish people embrace what is best for themselves in spite of the common good, getting more than one is deserved. Aristotle does not preach total selflessness which is impossible for ethics that starts from eudaemonia.

[Handout 15-b]

What does Aristotle mean when he characterizes human beings as “political animals”?

Human beings are political animals because we form communities naturally. For example, bees are political animals because they form hives. There is something special about humans though because we can have proper politics (a say in what goes on).

How does the phenomenon of human speech bear on the specific way in which human nature is  “political”?  

The power of speech allow s us to talk about benefits and harms. It allows for an autonomous structure of self governance where people come together to agree about norms about injustice and justice based on what harms them and benefits them through a deliberative process. Aristotle points to democracy and the proper debate about justice and injustice for the starting point is that we need other people to properly flourish. We are self-sufficient for eudaemonia but we still cannot live solitarily, we need justice as a social virtue to live together– virtues are required to live well together.