Musu Abdulai

Phi 180 Sec. 80

Brian Foley

Exam #1 Aristotle

March 12, 2009

 

According to Aristotle, all of our actions and choices seem to be aimed at end, which we consider good. Most activities are a means to a higher end. However, there is a different in the end at which we aim. In some cases, the action, the good we pursue is the end (e.g. singing), in others, the end is the product beyond the action (e.g. getting a good grade on an exam after studying for weeks). While there are many goods that we pursue, some goods are pursued for their own sake (e.g. security), others are pursued for the sake of something else (e.g. money). If money is pursued for the sake of security, then security is a higher good than money. While everything we do is aimed at achieving good in itself; however, they can be done in a way that compromises the accomplishment of the highest human good. There is only one good that Aristotle claims can be pursued solely for itself and not for the gain of anything else. That ultimate good, is eudaimonia (happiness).

Everyone agrees that the highest human good is happiness; however, human's can not agree upon what exactly makes up happiness. Most find pleasure, honor, and wealth as the means of happiness, which Aristotle rejects: for happiness can not be achieved with any of this, even though they can be part of having a happy life. Common people equivalent happiness with sensual pleasure and are satisfied with a life of enjoyment. Pleasure is found in satisfying desires, however we can never satisfy our desires, since they are never up to us (e.g. a drug addict can never satisfy their drug craving, they are always seeking that ultimate high). If human happiness were nothing more than pleasure, then the attainment of the highest human happiness wouldn't be up to us, we would all be in prisoners of our desires. However that isn't enough: for human life has a higher purpose/end. Cultivated people view receiving honor as the greatest good, but clearly this is too superficial as the answer to true happiness, since honor depends on those who bestow it rather than those that receive it. It can be easily taken away as it is give. The good should be a man's possession, which can not be easily taken away. "Furthermore, men seem to be pursuing honor to assure themselves of their own worth...they want to be honored on the basis of their own virtue or excellence. Obviously, then, excellence, as far as they are concerned, is better than honor" (1095b25). If excellence then is better than honor, nobody can call the life of such a man happy, because when we aim at happiness, we do so for its own sake not because happiness helps us realize another end. Arostle tries to determine how best one can achieve true happiness; however this is not precise since a lot of things depend on various circumstances. As for people ruled by money, wealth is merely a means to their ultimate end...it is not sought for itself but for what it can be used to achieve.

Join now!

Aristotle stated that we see the good of something in relation to how well they fulfill their function. For instance, a person who plays the flute well is a good flutist. Playing the flute is the flutist's function, being that this is their distinctive function. Aristotle believes that human beings have three parts to their psychologies, which he calls the three souls: the rational soul, which thinks, and forms belief; the animal soul, which is conscious and feels desires and emotions; the vegetative soul that is unconscious and control involuntary functions. When the rational soul is doing its job well, it ...

This is a preview of the whole essay