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Nicomachean Ethics: Aristotle's Definition Of Good

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Nicomachean ethics refers to a logical analysis of the essence of good life for humans. In the beginning, Aristotle starts his work by claiming the existence of some ultimate good where in the end, every human being is aiming to achieve. The essential characteristics of the ultimate good include completeness, finality, self-sufficiency, and continuity. This good, which every person’s actions strive to achieve, is happiness (referred to as “eudemonia” in Greek). This could also be translated to being blessed or living well, which is not a fixed state but a form of activity.
The study of good is considered as a political science because politics inclines itself in acquiring the highest ends for the lives of people. Also it is not considered …show more content…

His account is well-explained in Nicomachean Ethics. In his view, eudemonia involves activity and exhibiting virtue according to reason. Also, Aristotle adds that, ”eudemonia is a process and not a state” (1176b5) He derives this belief from his essentialist human nature understanding from the perspective that reason is exclusive to mankind, and their perfect work is exercising reason. Primarily, eudemonia (happiness) is attained by properly developing ones’ the greatest and most human abilities because by nature, we are rational beings. Hence, happiness for a human being is achieving excellence in …show more content…

These refer to those people who generally portray excellence in their life, for instance, in thought and character. The latter is usually translated as a moral virtue or excellence. This refers to the qualities’ combination which exhibits an individual as more admirable than they are. In Nicomachean Ethics, he states that "Excellence of character is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us, this being determined by reason and in the way in which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. Now it is a mean between two vices, that which depends on excess and that which rest on defect”. When someone has a good character, they are much admired by everyone because of their excellence, which is a result of their actions which comprise the higher good –

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Aristotle filled Nicomachean Ethics cover to cover with claims pertaining to happiness, virtue, friendship, and similar concepts. One claim states that happiness is choice worthy in its own right and self-sufficient, as “it is the end of the things achievable in action” (I.7, 1097b). Another claims finds that happiness requires external goods (I.8, 1099b). The purpose of this paper is to create a complete comprehension of these claims before responding to them.

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Aristotle’s quest to determine what Eudaimonia, which can be translated to happiness and success, is in the Nicomachean Ethics and leads him to the question of the function of human beings. After reading all ten books of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, I am left perplexed when it comes to two points Aristotle argues about. Throughout this essay, I will argue against Aristotle’s definition of happiness and if a human being truly has a function or purpose. Before I begin my arguments against Aristotle’s ideas of the purpose of a human being and his definition of happiness, I will provide some background

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Striving Towards the True Good Throughout all these readings I have come to understand, that the basic key to Aristotle’s philosophy was achieving eudemonia or in other words, true happiness. Within the text of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle goes on to explain how the aim of life is to reach the highest good. Aristotle explains how being good at something for example guitar playing would not necessarily make you virtuous, because that person may have a wretched personality that makes him a bad or unvirtuous person.

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(pg xiv) One of his best, known works, Nicomachean Ethics, examines what Aristotle believes it takes for a human being to be a good person. (pg xvi-xvii) Aristotle states that the human good is an activity of the soul in accord with virtue.

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Aristotle argument continues, “goodness rather than honour is the end pursued in public life”. Perhaps here it can be said that ‘goodness’ is the unselfish pursuit

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Now that I have come to a better understanding of Aristotle’s Nicomachean; I believe it’s safe to say I’ve come to a decision. Although I respect the importance Aristotle places on virtue; I don’t completely agree with his outlook as a whole. I tend to find myself picking out, golden nuggets of wisdom and then discarding the rest. In the past, I had blindly accepted Aristotle’s truths, but now I can’t see the practicality of Aristotle’s ethics, especially in today’s society.

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What happiness? In Nichomachean Ethics, written by Aristotle, one of the main subjects of discussion is happiness. Even if the book was written over two thousand years ago, the subject of happiness is still relevant and interesting to study. In the first sections of the book, happiness is discussed in terms of being the highest good; in the last chapter happiness is conceived as being attainable in a full life of studying.

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Introduction The central claim of this position paper is that to be a good friend; you need to be a moral person. I will explore how virtues can impact friendship in reference to Alexander MacIntyre (1981), Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (2004), Marcus Tullius Cicero and Lucius Annaeus Seneca. Argument One ‘Philia’, the love of friendship, Pope Benedict XVI (2005, p. 1) explains, is based on the relationship between Jesus and his disciples.

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He says that these friendships of the good are the greatest external good and maintains that they are vital to a happy life. Aristotle concludes that the key to living a true life of happiness, fulfillment, and well-being or eudaimonia, lies in a life surrounded by friends and cannot be found within a life of solitude. While Book IX.9 focuses on the defense of

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The aim of Nicomachean Ethics is to determine what the good is which leads to the discussion of Eudaimonia and virtue. Aristotle’s opening sentence establishes that all actions aim at some good (1999, p. 3) so therefore good must be that which all people aim for. MacIntyre interprets that, “Good is defined at the outset in terms of the goal, purpose, or aim to which something or somebody moves. To call something good is to say that it is under certain conditions sought or aimed at.

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Book I of Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics is devoted to determining whether there is some ultimate good or end that all human actions seek. Aristotle argues that all human actions seek some sort of good, and that there is an ultimate good that we wish for only because of itself, which allows us to wish for other things (NE 1094a5). He argues that we can not choose everything for the sake of something else, because this would lead to an infinite number of choices leaving desire to seem empty. The good that we desire for no other reason other than itself will be the best or ultimate end to human activity (1094a20). He tries to establish this end by giving certain criteria that ends must meet in order to be considered the best good.

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In “Ethical Virtue,” Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle demonstrates, and elaborates on the virtues of intellect and ethics, in order to fulfill happiness. The difference between the both, is that intellectual virtue grows from teachings and experience throughout time, and ethical virtue come from habits (493). “Thus the kinds of habits we form from early childhood are of no small importance; they matter a great deal - indeed, they make all the difference…” (494). In other words, one must exercise what they acquire, or learn, so by doing just things one becomes just. Furthermore, if one wishes to achieve happiness, they must aim at what is intermediate, meaning that virtue is a mean.

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Aristotle makes that clear when he uses the example of the archer: “Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right? If so, we must try, in outline at least, to determine what it is, and of which of the sciences or capacities it is the object” (NE, 1094a25). For this reason, Aristotle made the Nicomachean Ethics to not only be a book of theory, but a guide on how to live a good life for both the individual and the community (NE, 1094b7). To do so, Aristotle believed that to be happy was to be of good, moral character. One can only be a good, moral character if he acts in accordance with virtue and must work towards processing them all (NE, 1098a10).

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A man who only seeks honor needs to always be dependent on those people who will give him the honor. And according to Aristotle happiness is self-sufficient. With other carnal pleasures they too depend on someone or something else, when the thing that’s giving you the pleasure is gone so is your happiness. He believes that theoretical wisdom is the ultimate happiness because it fulfils the requirements of self-sufficiency.

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The book Nichomachean Ethics written by Aristotle is broken up into 10 books giving insight to what leads to the “good life”. The first chapter and first paragraph give a great insight as to what the book will end up describing throughout. “Every art and every institution, and in like manner every action, as well as predilection, seems to aim at some good: wherefore men have well defined the good to be “that which all things desire” (Oxford ). To me this makes Nichomachean Ethics a valid ethical system based on the way Aristotle sketches the highest good for man involving both a more practical and theoretical side. “The book, Nicomachean Ethics, prescribed a specific code of conduct in what he had ended up calling good living” (A&E Television

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