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Aristotle's
Nichomachean Ethics
by
Aaron
Rowe
In his Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle endeavors to investigate
the aim of man and the state to achieve the good. Politics is
the mode through which the state can establish an environment
where the good can be realized and where happiness is the end
goal of this process. Happiness is self-sufficient and is an
end in itself making it the highest end for Aristotle. If
several ends are means to something else then they are not
final whereas he says there is no higher end to happiness. The
good man is virtuous and pursues excellence in order to conform
with the best and most complete in order to be happy. The
purpose of man then is to orient himself towards virtue so he
can be moving towards happiness.
Virtuous men must then do things that are pleasant by nature
since these actions conform to virtue in that they are pleasant
in an of themselves. These acts are important to happiness
since happiness needs external goods to be realized. Happiness
cannot just be a state of mind but comes through virtuous
activities. The aim of politics is to aid people in doing
virtuous activities. We are equipped to receive virtue but we
must make it a habit to act virtuous in order to bring forth
its completion and fulfillment. Those that continue to do
virtuous deeds will then be supremely happy and the state in
turn will be happy.
Virtue is then that which renders a thing good and causes it to
perform its function well. It is a worthy task to be virtuous
since it is the more difficult path. While there are many ways
to go wrong, there is only one way to “hit the mark,” as
Aristotle says, making virtue essential to our nature. In
goodness and excellence virtuous is an extreme while to its
essence it is the middle ground between too much of a thing and
too little. Aristotle identifies excess and deficiency as the
opposing forces that work to corrupt virtue by drawing our
desires away from the pursuit of happiness for its own sake.
While spite or murder are base emotions and acts and cannot be
right, the ends of virtuous act and emotions will always be
right and good. Aristotle identifies friendship between good
men who are alike in virtue as the highest form where
unqualified good and pleasure are found in it. In this
friendship each person loves their own good because it is
reciprocated making it essential to achieving happiness for the
person.
How do body and soul/mind figure into the author’s account of
human being? Are they presumed to be separable substances, two
irreducible aspects of a single substance, or is one reducible
to the other?
Aristotle moves away from Plato’s view of a three-part person
to a more holistic view of man found in the soul. While he
recognizes that there are pursuits of the body and of the soul
he demonstrates that one cannot be pursued separately from the
other. Man’s happiness depends on the focus of his soul and
whether or not a man strives for virtue or not. In doing
virtuous deeds, man must use his whole body by way of acting
physically and realizing internally that he does good for the
sake of good. Rather than having to align the intellect and
spirit against the desires to fulfill a good life, Aristotle
would say that the person who desires to be virtuous for the
sake of virtue finds happiness.
Can we trust appearances and common sense to lead us to the
truth about human nature? Or is scientific research or a
hermeneutics of suspicion in order when dealing with the strict
truth about human nature and the wellsprings of its
behaviors?
We can trust common sense to lead us to the truth about human
nature because we have an innate desire to be happy and that is
the fulfillment of our nature. We know what pursuits lead us to
actions that are good not for the fact that they bring us
pleasure for pleasure’s sake but that they are good in and of
themselves. Aristotle says that happiness is god-given which
means we can seek happiness in an end for its own sake. It is
the political process that helps us to be happy by creating an
environment where our actions are virtuous and the political
rulers will put us right when we are not virtuous. Our common
sense should help us then to discern where to act with virtue
because we will want to do what is good because it will make us
happy.
Are humans understood to be natively capable of pure altruism?
Or are their altruistic actions construed as functioning as
means to furthering their own self-interest?
Humans are capable of pure altruism and Aristotle would say we
desire this in the form of friendship. A true friendship is one
where noble people love each other for the sake of friendship
whereas, the person who is friends with someone so as to gain
something from it will soon find this friend lost. True
friendship is seen when noble deeds are done by noble people
for the sake of the friendship which means a friend would do
something altruistic purely for the good of the friendship. If
we conform to excellence and virtue, we will be capable of
doing things for others without expecting something for
ourselves in return.
What does the author presume the destiny of human being to
be?
The destiny of human being is to be happy and to seek to do
virtuous deeds for the sake of happiness itself. We only
realize who we really are when we are happy because happiness
is an end that can go no further. In order to be virtuous we
must understand the limits of our emotions and actions by
avoiding extremes and deficiencies and aim to be right on the
mark. This will help us to be noble and do things that will
form good habits so as to have the ability to receive virtue in
its fullest form. Aristotle sees politics as essential in
defining who we are since he sees politics as the position
where one is forced, by the very nature of their job, to look
out for the best interests of others so that they might have
happiness. The job that requires one to help others define who
they are as human beings must be the highest good there is.
Discussion Points
Aristotle’s discussion of the essence of virtue and how it is
hitting the mark rather than missing to one side or the other
is similar to Christian notion of sin. One of the Hebrew
meanings for the word sin is to miss the mark meaning that the
right action is located on the target while to do the wrong
thing is as easy as missing.
Homer Simpson reiterates this point when talking to Mr. Burns
about being a good billionaire or being a miserable old miser.
Mr. Burns is upset because he wants to be loved like the
Richard Branson-like character who wows people with far-out
stunts. Homer tries to talk some Homerian “sense” into him by
saying, “being good is hard work. To be a jerk is easy because
you don’t have to do squat.”
Augustine also has a discussion on friendship in his
Confessions and sees the value in the altruistic tendencies
true friends have for each other. One could see how a person
would be miserable were he to have no friends because he would
not have any outlet for his desire to do something for someone
else simply for the sake of that friend. In childhood
psychology, they talk about the importance of kids to have one
friend to aid in their development because that connection
gives them a sense of security that someone else cares for them
that is not related by blood.
by Aaron Rowe - Feb 2008
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