Aristotle Virtue To Telos Essay

The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle 's most important study of personal morality and the end of human life, has for many centuries been a widely-read and influential book. In this paper, my aim is to understand and explain how Aristotle, an ancient world-known Greek philosopher, developed the idea of ethics based on a teleological matter. Thus, I will explain how Aristotle relates virtue to telos.

To start with, in order to answer this question, we have to give a brief and clear definition of his idea of ethics, what are a teleological matter, and his view of virtue and how he relates it to telos? Aristotle was one of the first philosophers to engage in investigation in the world around us and human action. Aristotle has greatly discussed “the

Firstly, to have “some good” meaning to be goal oriented, and secondly, to aim at “some end”. According to Aristotle these two aims are virtually identical. He asked two question to aid us understand these statements. What is this good for, and what is the end of this? Different actions lead to different “telos” (Falcon, 2015, p. 1). And what is the aim of all of these? The final aim is eudemonia. Happiness is the highest good and end, which all humans aim at. Telos and teleology is simply a purpose and a goal. People do not agree on what actions make a good and happy life, therefore the purpose of “ethics” is formed to answer this question. What’s more, the teleological matter groups our actions in three different explained reasons. Firstly, we take actions in order to achieve something. For example, we exercise for our fitness or our health. Secondly, actions craved from us such as making love, and finally actions that are a combination of taking actions as a means for a specific result. For instance, we go to the casino to bet and make money. (Zunjic, n.d,

Human actions are believed to be coordinated, and not just chaotic and isolated. These actions build “links” of meaning and telos. Basic activities join into other activities to achieve higher order and higher end of happiness. As previously stated humans aim to achieve a good life, or happiness. He believes that happiness is achieved through a life full of virtue as well as the expansion of reason and the ability of greater wisdom. This is why we take various actions, to ensure enough outer goods to obtain health, leisure time and the ability to have virtue in our lifespan. Furthermore, another point Aristotle emphasizes, is that moral virtue is located somewhere between extremes and deficiency. That’s where the Greek saying “παν μετρον αριστον” comes from, meaning everything is good but don’t over or under do it. Keep everything in moderation, except virtue. Aristotle believes that no human ‘will’ is bad, if it can be controlled by reasoning based on moral principles. There is one way to acquire moral virtue, and this way is a combination of knowledge, adaptation and self-discipline (Falcon, 2015,