Aristotle

The Ethics
 Preliminaries
• Ethical Theory – distinct from theoretical sciences
its subject matter is GOOD ACTION towards the
goal of IMPROVING HUMAN LIVES

• moral thinking must be integrated with our

emotions and appetites and the preparation for
such unity should begin with CHILDHOOD
EDUCATION

• A virtuous character is acquired by habituation

and training since childhood
 Metaphysics and Ethics
• All things have an end
• A “final cause” – the good for which a thing is
done or the good for an object

• Shipbuilding – Ship
• Economics – Wealth
• Medicine -- Health
 The End of Human Life
• “Every art and every inquiry, and similarly
every action and choice, is thought to aim at
some good; . . . ” (NE I,1).

• What is the chief good we aim at?

Answer: Happiness.

• Question: But how do you define happiness?

Happiness as the greatest human good
• There is wide agreement that happiness is the
greatest human good.

• But there is little agreement about what

happiness (or a well-lived life) consists in.
 I, 4-5: Common Opinions on the Meaning of
Happiness

• Happiness = PLEASURE?
“pleasure” refers to physical enjoyment.

• Happiness = HONOR?

• Happiness = WEALTH?

• Happiness = CONTEMPLATIVE LIFE?

 What is happiness?
• Aristotle lays out the view of classes embraced
by Plato (that some are dominated by desire,
some by spiritedness, some by reason)
1. Some say it consists in a life of pleasure
– This is the view of the masses
2. Some say it is the life of honor
– This is the view of statesmen
3. Some say it consists in virtue
– This is the view of the wise
 I, 6: Meaning and Types of “Good”
Difficulty re: the Form of the Good.
• Honor truth more than our friends (Plato)!
• “Good” is an adjective used in many way
re: Substances
re: Accidents
• Non-relative goods: good in themselves
• Relative goods: good or useful for something
else.
 I,7: The Specific Human Good
• Happiness is a non-relative good:
= good in itself.
• Relative goods are chosen for the sake of
happiness
• Characteristics of Happiness:
• self-sufficient
• desirable
• complete
• goal or end of action (final cause)
 The final good as self-sufficing
• Our true good can scarce be taken away from
us.
• Many goods, however, are only conditional
and partial; they aim at something beyond
themselves.
– Moneymaking – ultimately aims at happiness
• These thus cannot be confused with the final
good, which is self-sufficing.
Contingent goods and a happy life
• These various partial, contingent goods
contribute to a good life.
• Contingent goods, which can come and go, are
still goods. It is better to have them, than not
to have them.
• Thus one living a fully good life has friends, a
certain wealth, physical beauty, etc. Some
external goods are necessary. (See also Bk. X,
Ch. 8)
 Argument for Nature of Happiness
• Everything has a natural function(s)
• IF it functions well, we call it “good.”
• Human beings have a function(s).
• Functioning is related to soul, as source of
motion/action
• Living = functioning

• Living well = functioning well.

• Functioning well means to function with excellence =

arete = virtue.
• Human excellence = functioning with virtue
• in keeping with the highest and best functions.
 More fundamental, however:
What is our function?
• The human function is a kind of life.
• It is to exercise one’s vital faculties in
accord with reason.
• It is act and live well and beautifully, as
an excellent, exemplary human.
• This means it is to act virtuously.
 Human nature
• Humans have three parts constituting their
nature:
– Vegetative soul
– Appetite
• He says these listen to reason
– Reason
• Reason plays a role in controlling appetites:
– If we do this, then we develop character virtues
 I,13: Nature of Human Soul
• non-rational functions + rational functions
• / \ / \
• / \ / \
• nutrition appetite intellectual
• growth desires
• reproduction
• ↓ ↓
• Moral Virtues Intellectual Virtues
• (or vices) (or vices)
 Two kinds of virtue
• Intellectual virtue
– This consists in developing intellectual abilities
(including the ability to judge how a virtuous
person should act—i.e., phronesis, or practical
wisdom/prudence.
• Character virtue
– These are moral excellencies—habits of character
cultivated in those who live excellently
 The development of character
• Virtues are not natural.
• They must be acquired by training.
• Just as we become pianists by playing piano,
we become just by acting justly, courageous
by acting courageously, etc.
• So, too, we become unjust by practicing
injustices, cowards by practicing cowardice,
etc.
 Context sensitive action
• The goal is not to follow a principle that
applies equally in every situation.

• It is to develop a character that allows us to

judge what action is appropriate in each
different kind of situation
 Taking pleasure in the right things
• Humans are malleable. We can take pleasure
and find pain in very different things

• The virtuous person learns to take pleasure in

good things and to find pain in bad things.
• We also want to avoid finding pleasure at the
wrong times or in the wrong manner
 The virtuous
• The virtuous takes pleasure

– In the right things

– At the right time
– Toward the right persons
– In the right manner
– To the right degree

• We take the pleasure or pain that we derive from

moral actions as a test of our character.
 Hamartanein
• Hamartanein is the Greek for missing the
mark.

• Our goal is to hit it.

• It is difficult, however, because there are many

ways of missing it, and few of hitting it.
 The golden mean
• The goal in virtues of character is to achieve a mean between two
extreme forms of character.
– We want to avoid both a deficiency and an excess of a certain
characteristic.
• The mean, however, is relative
– The right amount of food for Milo, the wrestler, is different than the
right amount of food for me.

• “Virtue, then, is a habit or trained faculty of choice, the

characteristic of which lies in moderation or observance of the
mean relatively to the persons concerned, as determined by
reason, i.e., as the prudent man would determine it.” (NE, Bk II, Ch.
6)
 Not all things admit of a mean
• Example: Adultery

• One can’t commit too little adultery, or just

enough – only too much.
• One can’t commit adultery with the right person,
in the right way, at the right time, etc.

• Nor can there be an excess of the virtues – i.e., to

much justice, too much moderation, etc.
 The golden mean
• In feelings of fear and confidence
– Mean = courage
– Deficiency of confidence = cowardliness.
– Excess of confidence = foolhardiness
• In taking money (small and large sums)
– Mean = Liberality, magnificence
– Excess in spending = prodigality, bad taste
– Deficiency in giving = Illiberality, meanness
• With regard to honor and disgrace
– Mean = high mindedness
– Excess = vanity
– Deficiency = low mindedness
 Mean in nearly all things
• In anger
– Mean = gentleness
– Excess = wrathfulness
– Deficiency = wrathlessness
• Pleasantness in amusement
– Mean = wittiness
– Excess = buffoonery
– Deficiency = boorishness
• Pleasantness in other affairs
– Mean = friendliness
– Excess = obsequious or flattery
– Deficiency = disagreeableness, quarrelsomeness
 Life of moral virtue is happy in a
secondary sense
• The development of character virtues is related
to intellectual virtue.
– In living in accord with virtue, we do develop the
intellectual virtue of prudence

• The development of this virtue stands in a

feedback relationship with the development of
virtues of character.
– The more virtuous we become, the better we see
what virtue calls for in a particular situation.
 External goods and the virtues of
character
• Basic necessities in life must be met to have a
good life.
• They are also necessary for the exercise of
character virtues.
– Strength is necessary to express bravery.
– Some money is needed to be liberal.

• But we only need moderate amounts of these

things to live a life of virtue.
 Perfect happiness
• This consists in the fullest expression of reason in us.
• It requires speculation or contemplation, since that is how
we most fully express reason.
• The life of contemplation is the only life pursued
completely for itself.
• It alone is the life of leisure.
• All toil is done in the hope that we can find peace/leisure – even the
toil of the statesman.
• But the life of contemplation surpasses what is possible for
us – it is more of a divine life.
• We ought, however, to exercise our reason in
contemplation as much as possible.
• The wise person is the happiest of all.
 II, 6: Definition of Virtue
( 1107 a 1-4)
• “(Moral) virtue” is a state of character
[genus)
• 2) concerned with choice,
• 3) lying in a mean,
• 4) a mean relative to us,
• 5) this mean being established by reason,
• 6) in the way a person of practical wisdom would
discern it.