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Aristotle's Three Types Of Life

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Recommended: Aristotle on the human good

According to Aristotle, everything we do in life, we do for the sake of some good, or at least something we perceive to be good. We call an act good if it satisfies a certain need. The satisfaction of this need is then considered good if it is a means for satisfying some further need, and this, in turn, is good if it will satisfy still another need. Sooner or later this process reaches a point where it is no longer a means for some further end but is an end in itself. This final end is what Aristotle means by the chief good. The chief good is good for its own sake and all other goods are means.
Aristotle purposes that happiness is the chief good. It makes sense if we think about it. Happiness is desirable, I can’t use happiness to achieve …show more content…

Aristotle believes the life of pleasure is beastly and slavish and is suited for animals. The life of honor is not self-sufficient it is associated with happiness for people who live a political life These kinds of life according to Aristotle are superficial and fake. The contemplative life is the better, but Aristotle believed that neither of these achieved the highest status or reached a final end. He said that those things were imperfect by themselves because they are not …show more content…

Aristotle says that eudaimonia is the greatest intrinsically valuable. Eudaimonia is a Greek word commonly translated as happiness or well being, however, the term also translates as fulfillment, success, and flourishing. A person who is eudaimon is not just merely enjoying life but is relishing life by living magnificently. One’s reputation and success, different than one’s emotional welfare, can be affected by death, which makes Aristotle’s discussion of eudaimonia after death significantly more relevant. Eudaimonia is commonly recognized as the chief good. Aristotle discusses four central views which are vital to eudaimonia being the ultimate human good. First, one must live a life bestowing to one’s function. Second, natural, honorable activity is essential for one to live a life of happiness. Third, one needs external goods such as wealth, power and friends in order to be happy. Finally, to live a life of happiness, one has to live a complete life in accordance with virtue in order to conclude that the person lived a happy

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In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle argues that the human good is the soul’s activity that expresses virtue. Aristotle concludes this from an invalid argument. On the one hand I do agree that the activity expressing virtue is a requirement for the human good. But on the other hand, I insist that the human good is a state and not an action. By modifying this argument, I believe we can reach a new conclusion that will help us better understand what Aristotle meant by these concepts.

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Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics begins by exploring ‘the good’. Book I argues that, unlike other goods, “happiness appears to be something complete and self-sufficient, and is, therefore, the end of actions” (10:1097b20-21). In other words, happiness is the ultimate good. But how does one achieve happiness? Aristotle formulates this in the context of work, since for all things, from artists to horses, “the good and the doing it well seem to be in the work” (10:1097b27-28).

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Thus, when human function is done well, it is in accordance with virtue and best human life is achieved. In addition, it can be inferred that since Aristotle’s definition of happiness is to be virtuous, performing rational activity well can lead to happiness. In addition, Aristotle states, “if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete” (1098a18). This means that eventually there will be one virtue that is inclusive of all virtue and that displays an end, and this virtue will be in line with the self-sufficient and inclusive concept of happiness as the chief good. If this inclusive virtue and good is achieved, ultimate happiness will be achieved as well.

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Some might say that if there were a set of people that were skilled in killing then it would automatically be seen as good because one, they are skilled in the art of killing and two, they have a reason to kill which can strain from severe cases of depression to discrimination. Although certain statements can be seen as good counter arguments, people sometimes forget that Aristotle is talking about the final outcome of happiness in the best sense with a big emphasis on the “noblest and the pleasantest thing”, meaning it is assumed murder sprees and other bad actions are rooted out because there is an image of a chief good through rational means. The function argument helps us realize what it takes to bring about happiness from certain actions in everyday life, for instance, the idea that the good of anything that has a function lies in performing the activity well establishes a foreground for the way humans go about with their daily activities. Not everyone is going to be able to do certain activities well as this is given by the imperfect nature of humans, but it does enable the human population to focus on distinct areas of expertise. The idea of something ultimately being good only if you perform the activity necessary well hints at a split society in the sense that everyone is predetermined to be good at something and the only way they will live a “happy” life is by strictly performing the activities they are good

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The main topic of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is eudaimonia, i.e. happiness in the “living well” or “flourishing” sense (terms I will be using interchangeably). In this paper, I will present Aristotle’s view on the role of external goods and fortune for the achievement of happiness. I will argue that he considers them a prerequisite for virtue. Their contribution to happiness is indirect, via the way they affect how we can engage in rational activity according to the relevant virtues. I will then object that this view threatens to make his overall account of happiness incoherent.

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Aristotle, on the other hand, had a much more positive outlook on the applicability of his political theory. In many ways, his ideal ideology would look much like Plato’s, although with a more guided and empirical approach. Aristotle, like Plato, argued that the state was not only necessary, but essential to the happiness of its people, because the state was the only means by which the city could achieve happiness. According to Aristotle, “the best good is apparently something complete” and likewise, that “happiness more than anything else seems complete without qualification” (Nicomachean Ethics, 205) and “everyone aims at living well and at happiness” (Politics, 315). Furthermore, he argued that “happiness is an activity of the soul expressing

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