Aristotle -- Nicomachean Ethics stupid reading Flashcards
what is the good and the chief good?
Something that we desire for its own sake
what is the “Master art” and why
politics (poli sci)
- End of this science must include those of the others
The end must be the good for man - Ordains which of the sciences should be studied
- Which class of citizens should learn and up to what point they should learn them
- Legislates what we are to do and what we are to abstain from
- End of this science must include those of the others
○ The end must be the good for man
what is human good
○ Human good is the activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete
it is better to be happy through ___ than through ___
virtue, chance
can animals and children be “Happy?”
○ Animals and children aren’t able to be “happy” because they can’t perform acts of virtue yet
If they’re called happy, they’re being congratulated by reason of the hopes we have for them
view of death
dead man = blessed
○ They’re beyond evils and misfortunes… not happy though
○ No! good and evil can still exist for a dead man
○ Honours, dishonours, children, descendants
○ This presents a problem: even if a dude does well in life, bad stuff could still end up happening to his descendants
○ Would be odd if the dead man would share in this, sometimes be happy, then wretched, depending on what happened to their descendants, but would also be odd if the descendants didn’t have an effect on the happiness of their ancestors
what constitutes happiness?
○ Virtuous activities (or the opposite) are what constitute happiness or the reverse
○ Virtuous activities are more permanent than man
This attribute will belong to the happy man
definition of a happy person
active in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life? and who is destined to live thus and die as befits their life
How is virtue of character acquired?
○ Intellectual
§ Owes its birth and growth to TEACHING
○ Moral
§ Comes bc of habit
§ The name (ethike) is similar to ethos (habit)
- No moral virtue arises in us by nature
○ Nothing that exists by nature can form a habit contrary to nature
difference between virtues and the things that come to us by nature
For the things that come to us by nature:
1. First we find the potential
2. Then we exhibit the activity
* But for virtues, we get them by exercising it first * We learn them by DOING them
what shows a person’s state of character?
state of pleasure or pain that ensues on acts
* Moral excellence is concerned with pleasures and pains
○ Pleasure –> do bad things
○ Pain –> abstain from noble things
virtue
state of character concerned with choice
Use reason to determine the middle between excess and (opposite) of excess
