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What does Aristotle say about the good?
Aristotle's search for the good is a search for the highest good, and he assumes that the highest good, whatever it turns out to be, has three characteristics: it is desirable for itself, it is not desirable for the sake of some other good, and all other goods are desirable for its sake.
What is the best good according to Aristotle?
For Aristotle, eudaimonia is the highest human good, the only human good that is desirable for its own sake (as an end in itself) rather than for the sake of something else (as a means toward some other end).
What is Aristotle's idea of happiness and good?
According to Aristotle, happiness consists in achieving, through the course of a whole lifetime, all the goods — health, wealth, knowledge, friends, etc. — that lead to the perfection of human nature and to the enrichment of human life. This requires us to make choices, some of which may be very difficult.
What is Aristotle's final good?
The final good for human beings is happiness; it is good-in-itself, the end of action, and hence self-sufficient.
How According to Aristotle can we decide what is good and find the highest good?
1.1 How, according to Aristotle, can we decide what is good and find the highest good? -The highest good is the end of the things we do. We can decide what the highest good is by determining what contains the ends of everything else.
What is the highest good meaning?
The so-called “highest good” in a standard understanding consists of “happiness distributed in exact proportion to morality (as the worth of a person and his worthiness to be happy)” (KpV, 05: 110).
What is meant by a good life?
Definition of the good life 1 US : the kind of life that people with a lot of money are able to have She grew up poor, but now she's living the good life. 2 : a happy and enjoyable life She gave up a good job in the city to move to the country in search of the good life.
What is the famous line of Aristotle?
“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” “Hope is a waking dream.” “No great mind has ever existed without a touch of madness.” “Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
What is the theory of Aristotle?
In his metaphysics, he claims that there must be a separate and unchanging being that is the source of all other beings. In his ethics, he holds that it is only by becoming excellent that one could achieve eudaimonia, a sort of happiness or blessedness that constitutes the best kind of human life.
What is a good life philosophy?
The good life is a condition in which a person will be the most happy. Such happiness can be researched through a deductive perspective, which has been done by many philosophers over time. Two such philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, deem the good life as the state in which a person exhibits total virtue.
What is Aristotle's Golden Mean?
Moral behavior is the mean between two extremes - at one end is excess, at the other deficiency. Find a moderate position between those two extremes, and you will be acting morally.
What is a good person philosophy?
To bring together the definition of a good man, Socrates says he is a man who always considers his actions and acts in a good and just manner. Aristotle says a good man acts unto virtue and derives his happiness and pleasure from that virtue. So we have a man who is prudent, virtuous, and just.
Is pleasure the highest good?
The Greek philosopher Epicurus taught that pleasure was the highest good. He believed that by removing anxiety and enjoying life's simple pleasures we could be happy.
What is the highest form of good?
Plato claims that Good is the highest Form, and that all objects aspire to be good. Since Plato does not define good things, interpreting Plato's Form of the Good through the idea of One allows scholars to explain how Plato's Form of the Good relates to the physical world.
Which is the highest virtue?
TruthTruth is the highest virtue, but higher still is truthful living.
What is the greatest good According to Kant?
Kant understands the highest good, most basically, as happiness proportionate to virtue, where virtue is the unconditioned good and happiness is the conditioned good.
Philosophy
Writings
Aristotle wrote two ethical treatises: the Nicomachean Ethics and the Eudemian Ethics. He does not himself use either of these titles, although in the Politics (1295a36) he refers back to one of themprobably the Eudemian Ethicsas ta êthikahis writings about character. The words Eudemian and Nicomachean were added later, perhaps because the former was edited by his friend, Eude…
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Organization
Though the general point of view expressed in each work is the same, there are many subtle differences in organization and content as well. Clearly, one is a re-working of the other, and although no single piece of evidence shows conclusively what their order is, it is widely assumed that the Nicomachean Ethics is a later and improved version of the Eudemian Ethics. (Not all of t…
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Influence
Although Aristotle is deeply indebted to Plato's moral philosophy, particularly Plato's central insight that moral thinking must be integrated with our emotions and appetites, and that the preparation for such unity of character should begin with childhood education, the systematic character of Aristotle's discussion of these themes was a remarkable innovation. No one had wr…
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Terminology
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Quotes
Addressing the moral skeptic, after all, is the project Plato undertook in the Republic: in Book I he rehearses an argument to show that justice is not really a virtue, and the remainder of this work is an attempt to rebut this thesis. Aristotle's project seems, at least on the surface, to be quite different. He does not appear to be addressing someone who has genuine doubts about the valu…
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Categories
Aristotle places those who suffer from such internal disorders into one of three categories: (A) Some agents, having reached a decision about what to do on a particular occasion, experience some counter-pressure brought on by an appetite for pleasure, or anger, or some other emotion; and this countervailing influence is not completely under the control of reason. (1) Within this ca…
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Definition
Furthermore, every ethical virtue is a condition intermediate (a golden mean as it is popularly known) between two other states, one involving excess, and the other deficiency (1106a26b28). In this respect, Aristotle says, the virtues are no different from technical skills: every skilled worker knows how to avoid excess and deficiency, and is in a condition intermediate between two extre…
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Introduction
A defense of Aristotle would have to say that the virtuous person does after all aim at a mean, if we allow for a broad enough notion of what sort of aiming is involved. For example, consider a juror who must determine whether a defendant is guilty as charged. He does not have before his mind a quantitative question; he is trying to decide whether the accused committed the crime, a…
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Criticism
Since Aristotle often calls attention to the imprecision of ethical theory (see e.g. 1104a17), it comes as a surprise to many readers of the Ethics that he begins Book VI with the admission that his earlier statements about the mean need supplementation because they are not yet clear (saphes). In every practical discipline, the expert aims at a mark and uses right reason to avoid t…
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Purpose
This enables us to see how Aristotle's treatment of the intellectual virtues does give greater content and precision to the doctrine of the mean. The best standard is the one adopted by the philosopher; the second-best is the one adopted by the political leader. In either case, it is the exercise of an intellectual virtue that provides a guideline for making important quantitative deci…
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Origin