Nicomachean ethics Flashcards
with respect to “the good” why does Aristotle hold that which he calls “political science” to be “the most controlling science,” or the “highest science?”
it concerns all aspects of a city which is greater than the individual. Political science is the knowledge of the city; its end is the human good hence it evaluates other sciences involving action and decides what is/is not to be done which indicates that political science includes the ends of all other sciences.
What are the five common understandings of the highest good identified by Aristotle?
pleasure, wealth, honor (life of gratification)
politics, study (life of political honor)
On what grounds does Aristotle reject pleasure as the highest good?
when someone conceives the good and happiness as pleasure, they also like the life of gratification, but this life is low in that by prioritizing pleasure, you live like grazing animals.
name three characteristic features of “the best good” identified by Aristotle
complete without qualification; an end that is always choice worthy in its own right (never because of something else)
self sufficient; an end that makes a life choice worthy and lacking nothing all by itself
most choice worthy; not counted as one good among many
how does Aristotle distinguish the kinds of virtue that will principally concern him in the NE, namely, “virtues of thought” and “virtues of character?”
Explain what Aristotle means when he says, “virtues of character arise in us neither by nature nor against nature”
virtues of character are not naturally realized but we have the potential to realize them we have the capacity to do certain things or be a certain way - to have a certain character and we acquire better virtues of character by repeated action/habits
your character us shaped by what we do
what are the three ways in which pleasure and pain are relevant to states of character?
pleasure and pain can make people bare- pursing the wrong things at the wrong times in the wrong ways
pleasure causes us to do bare actions while pain causes us to abstain from fine ones
it is more difficult to fight pleasure than to fight spirit about what is more difficult since a good result is even better when it is more difficult
what are the two things that every virtues “causes” or brings about in the person who possesses that virtue?
virtues cause their possessors to be in a good state and perform their function well.
If virtue is a mean, why is it that virtuous action cannot be reduced to a universal rule along the lines of “the virtuous person will always perform such and such actions”
This is because the mean of an actions is relevant to us and dependent on the situation to which it is applied
provide three examples of actions for which there is no mean (no virtuous way of doing them)
spite, shamelessness, envy, adultery, theft, and murder
name three particular virtues identified by Aristotle, state what each of the three is concerned with, and name the two vices or extremes relative to all three.
Truth-telling; intermediate person= truthful and the mean is truthfulness extremes= boastfulness and self-deprecation
pleasure in amusements; intermediate person= witty and the condition Wit; extremes= buffoonery and boor (the state of boorishness)
pleasure in daily life; intermediate person= friendly and mean state= friendliness; extremes= ingratiating (if he does it in his own advantage, a flatterer) and unpleasant in everything/ ill tempered
Describe how a courageous person or action appears to those whose are either cowardly or rash? How does courage appear to the courageous person? What do these differences in perspective suggest about the relation between the state of one’s character and one’s ability to see?
To the cowardly, the courageous seems rash and to the rash the courageous seems cowardly.
the state of ones character- their virtue (as manifested in the way we feel) may blind us to what is reality
with reference to what Aristotle says about “natural tendencies,” explain what Aristotle means when he says that someone who is not virtuous but aspires to be so should “first of all steer clear of the more contrary extreme”
Aristotle says that we have a natural tendency to one extreme and this extreme seems more opposed to the intermediate; an extreme is more contrary if we naturally develop more in that direction. We should accordingly steer clear of the more contrary extreme in order to straighten ourselves out and pull ourselves away from error as to more accurately find the intermediate (we have a natural tendency toward the more errorous extreme)
What are the two sources of “involuntary” action, according to Aristotle, and what do they have in common as causes or sources of what we do? provide two examples of involuntary actions that help to clarify how these two sources differ.
- ignorance
- an outside force
these do not live within the doer as desire
If an elected official were threatened with blackmail, and succumbed to the blackmailer’s threat by voting against a piece of legislation, say, that he or she had originally planned to support, would Aristotle consider this an involuntary action? Explain.
This may be an involuntary source because there is an outside force forcing the elected official to perform the action through black mail.
