Happiness- Nicomachean Ethics
Intro
Aristotle is not as haughty, writing less detached
last in line of 3 big Athenian thinkers
diff b/c started out in Macedonia
Macedonians thought they were Greek b/c spoke Greek, but Sparta/Athens/Greek places didn’t think they were Greek
elitist/royal upbringing b/c father close to king, reading+writing early on
goes to Athens, studies at Plato’s academy for 20 years
took those insights and moved forward
didn’t like things that were solely thought experiments, wanted to use logical deduction
mentions things you can’t really experience but doesn’t focus on them too much
wants it to be applicable for everyone but not everyone who is not elite
ppl in Athens had anti-Macedonian sentiment b/c Macedon wanted to be an empire→Phillip II
Aristotle goes back to Macedon+becomes tutor for Alexander (know they had a relationship, tutor part is assumed)
Greek were right b/c Phillip conquers Greece→protection of king→Ari goes back to Athens
establishes school where students known as peripatetics- “ppl who walk around”→ students would follow him while he talked
these students wrote down most of what Aristotle had to say→Nicomachean Ethics are like lecture notes, more likely that a student wrote this down
Alexander takes throne, ambitious and smart→ conquers a lot of territory in a dozen years
became source of tall tales in ancient world, so many unreliable stories
would try to combine conquered areas’ culture w/ Greek (Macedonian) culture
very into clemency, trying to join ppls together, would start dressing like them + get Macedonians to accept their customs
good administrator
Persia, Troy, even went into India and wanted to go farther but soldiers wanted to go home and threatened mutiny (prob scared of elephants) →Alexander cried and said it was saddest moment of his life, turned back and went south into Egypt, died b/4 got home
no one was as good at handling all of this and no plan of succession→ generals killed his son b/c not born to Greek women, split up empire
Greek were elites in Egypt→Cleopatra was a descendant of Ptolemy, one of these generals
Egypt saved most of Greek lit for us
Aristotle has more power, app Alex would send plants and animals and stuff to Ari, classified plants and animals, started 1st zoo in Athens, natural philosopher
Aristotle became most influential in line of philosophers b/c of all this
Aristotle becomes target b/c Greek revolt after power vacuum, charged w/ same crimes as Socrates was but Ari leaves, died like a year later anyway
Aristotle had a bigger influence out east while in Western world, Greek is forgotten for several years, only know stuff through Roman sources
for ppl who have a lot of agency in their life
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle had a son and a father named Nicomachus so is this from his father or for his son? We don’t know but still w/in elite sphere
Wants to define Happiness and give a guide for living Virtuously
Says for every action/decision we make, we do it with a purpose
Usage of “good” is weird b/c “good” = goal/aim for him
Says you can think of actions hierarchically, sometimes an action is done with other goals in mind
gives medical examples for this, like using a stethoscope
he kinda thinks everything has one singular ultimate goal, happiness
knows that there must be some imprecision
says ppl who are young shouldn’t be involved in politics b/c too emotional and not wise enough
Happiness
word he uses means a good spirit/soul→what makes it so your soul is as good as it can be
Types of happiness
pleasure- ultimate goal in life, avoid pain
to him, it seems stupid
make a choice to press pleasure button→once you experience it that often, you get used to it→need to get more and more pleasure at once→cannot get to perfect pleasure happiness
can experience pleasure w/o anyone else being involved and Ari wants more ppl involved
achieving honor- known importance in ancient greek
having a good rep
not ultimate goal tho b/c it’s hard to devote all your time to this, typically a secondary effect of other actions
not completely w/in your control b/c depends on what other ppl think abt you
Ari wants true happiness to be something that cannot be taken away
virtue>honor
virtue
part of happiness but not full sum of it
close to morals
contemplative life
being active in thought/ philosopher
will be brought back
money making
not isn’t a full goal, get happiness b/c of money
What is ultimate good?
complete in itself as a goal
seek it for itself
self sufficient- in your control
connected to being human b/c must be an activity of the soul
animals and babies can’t be happy b/c being happy involves thought/deliberation
maybe babies can’t be rational and feel that kind of happiness but they still feel happy?
where is that cutoff?
part of human soul is ration
Argument that intelligence/ration is just pattern recognition→AI would be rational
most human tests of intelligence are pattern recognition+replication, which is what AI is→close to aristotle’s def of human
Description of Happiness- not a definition, more like a legal parameter
happiness is a complete and self sufficient thing (aim) that requires activity of the soul (not passive) in accordance w/ complete virtue over a complete lifetime.
Gods/ Fate might be a source of happiness, but they would not be whimsical abt it, not left up to chance→ could be but we are really in charge of our happiness
Afterlife- he doesn’t know what happened but doesn’t matter as much as what happens while alive
if death is more important than what happens while you’re alive→ would change your actions
Moderation- no excess or deficiency
there is a middle ground, specific to an individual, and context dependent
there are moral absolutes, just like Socrates and Plato believed
Ex: Courage=good, on the middle ground→Rash=excess=bad, Coward=deficiency=bad
Even if a virtue has been habituated in your soul, you still have a choice of whether or how much to use a virtue
ex: if you’re generous but give too much away→excess→nothing left to give