L2: Aristotle's / Nicomachean ethics

happiness / eudaimonia

• happiness is the highest goal in life → to live a good / meaningful life (eudaimonia), not merely about pleasure / mental state

• eudaimonia → human flourshing

• it is self sufficient and complete. you want it for its own sake

• the telos (ultimate end) of human person → everything leads to it. once you have it, you don’t need anything else

• to reach hapiness / eudaimonia, a person must know their function (something peculiar to a man) → to be rational / to reason

• in simple terms: good life → using reason properly → doing what’s right (virtue)

intermediate goods

• fame, fortune, good health / looks

• things we desire / want for ourselves for the sake of something else

• example:

  • we want money to buy food

  • we want food to not be hungry

2 parts of being rational

1. obedient to reason

2. possessing / exercising reason & intelligience

obedient to reason

• does not think by itself. it mostly emotional, but can follow reason

• connected to: desires, emotions, impulses, appetites

• “do i feel like doing it?”

• example: you’re feeling lazy to attend class

  • follow reason → you still attend to pass / learn

  • ignore reason → you skip

possessing / exercising reason & intelligence

• knows, thinks, analyzes, decides whats right & wrong

• “this is the right thing”

• example:

  • i know cheating is wrong

virtue

• the good of man is an activity of the soul (the rational soul) in accordance with virtue

• you are not “good” bcs you did something good. you are good when:

  • you do it because it is right & not just conform

  • you know what you are doing / do it on purpose

  • make it part of your character

virtue is best acquired through practice and habit

• being happy / virtuous needs to have the right balance. not too much, not too little

• 2 kinds of virtue:

  • intellectual virtue:

  • moral virtue

• the pleasure / pain that accompanies actions may be regarded as a test of a person’s moral state. basically, your feelings reveal your character. it’s about how you feel doing a certain action

intellectual virtue

• it is fostered by teaching

• demand experience and time

• example

  • learning in class

• our virtues are not natural. because if they are, we won’t need to develop it

• we only learn when we do them

moral virtue

• the outcome of habit / repetition of same action

• ethike: greek term for ethics

• ethos: habit

• example

  • you become honest by telling the truth repeatedly

importance of virtue

• an action can truly be virtuous if:

  • they know what they are doing

  • choosing to do it on purpose for its own sake

  • do it as part of a firm / immutable character

the golden mean

• virtue is the middle of two extremes. it can’t be too much or too little

• example:

  • you can’t always be shy, but you can’t be ignorant. you just have to be confident

to be virtuous is difficult

• it’s hard to be good bcs it’s hard to find the mean in everything

• what to do according to aristotle:

  • avoid the worse extreme

  • example: if u have to choose whether too careful or too reckless, avoid being reckless instead because it is more damaging

  • basically choose the less wrong option

• while it is not easy to determine the right way, the right amount depends on the situation, timing, and person

• small mistakes are okay, not the big ones