account for good, eudaimonia, relationship

Question 1

Aristotle holds a teleological view of the universe; everything is directed to some final goal or good.

Answer 1

there is an ultimate good for humans:
o P1 everything we do is aimed at some good
o P2 each good is also done for the sake of a higher good
o P3 this cannot go on forever otherwise our aim would be pointless
o C therefore there must be an ultimate good, which everything we do is aimed towards.
The purpose of ethics is to identify the ultimate good for us as humans and how we can achieve it.

Question 2

Criticisms

Answer 2

1. some actions appear to have no purpose or good – daydreaming, doodling which undermines P1
2. the argument may commit the fallacy of composition like all humans’ beings have a mother therefore there is one mother that all human beings have.

Question 3

the meaning of eudaimonia

Answer 3

eudaimonia is the supreme good for humans.
It usually translated as happiness, but it best understood as contentment which comes when a thing achieves its purpose it includes the idea of living well, thriving, and flourishing with others in society.= human flourishing

Question 4

what is eudaimonia ?

Answer 4

final end
something we achieve for
partly out of our control eg luck

Question 5

The relationship between eudaimonia and pleasure

Answer 5

• There are other things we aim for (virtues) that don’t necessarily
  bring us pleasure.

However, the good life does involve pleasure:

• Hedonism: pleasure is the good.
• • virtue ethics: pleasure is a part of the good.

Pleasure plays a crucial role in developing virtues of character and so enabling us to reach eudaimonia.
Initially we may not enjoy being generous, courageous honest etc but we start to act as a virtuous person and not just go through the motions we start to enjoy and get pleasure from being generous etc.

argues that the most pleasure we can gain is from theoretical reasoning and philosophy