Within Book 1, chapter 7 of The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores the concepts of happiness and human good. He explains how happiness is attained, and by the end of the passage reveals how a person can become good.
Initially, Aristotle claims that every human action is done for some greater goal. These final goals are referred to as “…the good achievable by action” (1097a 23). Those who practise painting for example, do so for the goal of becoming a great painter and the goal of obtaining good though this action. Yet through painting they will also attain happiness. Happiness becomes the greater goal, rather than becoming a good painter, through the action of painting. The final end, the final good, to all human actions is happiness. Aristotle argues that we do not choose actions such as honour and virtue for the sake of themselves, but for the sake of the happiness that they grant us (1097b 5). Now Aristotle also claims that happiness is the most desirable and worthwhile goal to pursue. He also places constraints on happiness, by stating that happiness is final and self-sufficient. (1097b 20). In this case, self-sufficiency is described as “lacking in nothing” (1097b 16), thereby explaining why happiness is so desirable. The finality of happiness simply reiterates the fact that happiness is the
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Yet this is seen as a platitude by Aristotle because some people are referred to as good people when they perform their humanly function well (1097b 22-25). For example the function of a painter is to paint well, and that makes a good painter. The function of man is reason. (1098a 4) Therefore a good person will be one who follows reason by exhibiting virtue. (1098 16-17). This adds to the definition of happiness, so that the best of human life is when a person acts with reason and virtue, and as a consequence, that person attains