Preview

What Does Aristotle Mean In Nicomachean Ethics

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
687 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Does Aristotle Mean In Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle was a greek philosopher who wrote the book “Nicomachean Ethics”. Aristotle’s view of human natures centers around humans achieving happiness. Too him happiness is our highest goal in life. Aristotle points out that most people in this world have a false view of what happiness really means. Most think of it as physical pleasure like eating, sex, or honor. These people have an imperfect view of what it means to be alive and what it means to be happy. The reason people have a false idea of happiness is because they lack virtue. Virtue is behaving in the right manner. Such as being courageous in life or being a coward. If one is courageous they will find happiness in being such while the coward would find happiness in the opposite but that is a false happiness. Aristotle takes the reader through the true meaning of being alive. He talks about many different aspects of achieving the good life and being happy; he stresses on topics like eudaemonia, classes of goods, and our telos and function in this world. …show more content…
Telos is a greek word that refers too fulfillment and completion. Meaning an end or purpose in our life. What is our goal in existing? And what is our purpose? A mans function is what sets us people apart from other animals. Our ability to contemplate is one of the highest of human activities. The function of man is to keep their soul active while still having reason. Acting with reason is acting with virtue. According to Aristotle the end or purpose is happiness. “Happiness, then, is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Analysis Of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

    not teaching them better. While one might have been raised to know the difference between the right and wrong, who the person begins to associate himself with could change his/ her moral character. In The Nicomachean Ethics without virtues one can not be happy so a life lived making morally wrong decisions is a life that will not see happiness according to Aristotle. An example that best proves Aristotle’s thinking is one of a man losing his dog at a local park. The man searches all over for his dog, but his dog is nowhere to be seen. After hours of searching the man returns home. The dog did in fact run away, but a young mom and her two daughters stopped the dog before it can go any further. Attempting to find who the owner of the dog is,…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Chapters
    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Chapters

    Nicomachean Ethics Book III, Chapters 6­9 In Chapter 6 of Book III of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle teaches of how fear is not something that can be easily described. He talks about what fear means in terms of courage.…

    • 321 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ethical Theory Comparison Chart Paper
    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Ethical Theory Comparison Chart Paper

    Aristotle believed that we as humans have natural obligations that provide happiness. Happiness consists of pleasure and the capacity to develop reasoning.…

    • 1095 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    What Is Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Annotated
    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages

    What Is Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics Annotated

    Annotated Bibliography Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, book VIII and IX talk about the different types of friendships and what they mean to the person. The articles I’ve selected provide a better explanation on what Aristotle meant by giving examples and up to date explanations. The other sources help provide a better understanding on what dual relationships is for a social worker and the consequences attached to those actions. The last two sources help understand what a social worker needs to become a certified worker, and the ethical codes they need to follow daily.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Aristotle's Theory Of Moral Virtue
    • 101 Words
    • 1 Page

    Aristotle's Theory Of Moral Virtue

    Aristotle accepts the individual choices and experiences of people and was more concerned with virtue ethics. He doesn't have an idea of free will. Along with Socrates, Aristotle believes that someone may know what the best outcome is and still do wrong, but draws the line between happiness and moral virtue. This includes depression and unhappiness. The world has moral meaning. He explains that moral virtue does not mean the end of life. His theory is that happiness is the end of life, which comes together with reason. Virtue is a state of personality that has to do with someone’s choice.…

    • 101 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Arguments And Ideas In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics
    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Arguments And Ideas In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

    In Book 1, Aristotle states “but in every activity and undertaking, it is the end, for it is for the sake of this that they all do the rest” (Arist. EN 1.7, 1097a21, trans. Rowe). By excising this rationality for goodness, it ultimately leads to happiness, which is the reason for all action. Here, Aristotle supplies his teleological perspective that humans are goal or purpose oriented. For businesspersons, the goal could be considered to supply goods and services while adding value to all stakeholders. Although, Aristotle would argue that the goal of the businessperson is not an end in itself, rather it is a subordinate end that creates means to higher ends. Thus, to understand how to be a good person, one must understand the higher end purpose, happiness, which is pursued for its own sake. Aristotle's conception of happiness focuses on the activity of success and fulfillment (Green, R. M. G. A., 2013, p. 9). Aristotle considers happiness as an activity. For the businessperson this could mean receiving a promotion. Happiness is not a single activity, rather it is the consistent exercise of reason and appropriate virtues that lead to success and fulfillment (Green, R. M. G. A., 2013, p. 10). The virtues…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Phi 160
    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Phi 160

    Aristotle one of a great thinkers left a great philosophical logic that is still being learned today. Born in Stagira, Greece Aristotle started as a student of Plato to become a tutor of Alexander the Great. In Nicomachean Ethics, book written by Aristotle’s, he explains virtues and how happiness is the means by which human beings have moral virtues. The debate whether virtue or vice should determine happiness is what Aristotle simplifies for us. Happiness should be determined by the activities human beings, virtuous or not, do in order to be happy within themselves.…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Aristotle Revies Book 1 2 and 3 of Nicomachean Ethics
    • 2394 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Aristotle Revies Book 1 2 and 3 of Nicomachean Ethics

    In Aristotle’s Nicomachean ethics book one, he starts of describing “good”. He believes that every activity humans do is to achieve a good. The satisfactory goals we have are to achieve a greater good. And our highest good is classified as the supreme good. Politics is a form of this good. But it cannot be classified as the supreme good because what is good for one may not be good for another.…

    • 2394 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    John Stuart Mill Just And Unjust
    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages

    John Stuart Mill Just And Unjust

    In Aristotle’s Book II of Nicomachean Ethics, he explains that virtue of character is the mean to the ultimate end, which is happiness. Aristotle states that, without a goal or ultimate end (happiness), life does not have a purpose. Therefore every action in a person’s life has to be made with true virtue of character in mind in order to achieve…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Louis P. Pojman's Analysis
    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Louis P. Pojman's Analysis

    Aristotle was Plato’s prize pupil who discussed the types of moments where moral correctness may be applied to certain events, nature of virtues involved in the sound morality of humans as well as the ways to achieve happiness in one’s life. The overall question that Aristotle tends to ask himself and try to answer is the question that pertains to human character and personality, what do we as humans need to do, to be considered as a good person. Aristotle explained that every activity has a final cause and purpose at which it aims to achieve and he argued that since there is not an infinite amount of goods, there has to be one type of good that is the highest and most important which humans strive towards. He continues to describe this ultimate good and decided that it could be called happiness, however the only puzzling question left is, what is happiness? Due to its existence in so many forms it is tough to describe happiness as one true thing…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle's Niconmachean Ethics
    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Aristotle's Niconmachean Ethics

    In Books 9-11 of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle works to segregate the explanations of happiness as a result of fortune and happiness as a result of virtuous actions. However, after he reaches an ideologically pure explanation, he quickly pivots backwards, settling on an explanation that incorporates elements of both theories. This allows posthumous events to affect one’s state of happiness, impacts his definition of happiness, and exemplifies the text’s ideological inclusion.…

    • 1021 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Social Responsibility
    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Social Responsibility

    Aristotle states virtue, are the “habits and traits that allow people to live well in communities” (Arthur & Scalet, 2009, p. 50). These virtues are characteristic traits such as honesty, generosity, bravery, and courage. Like many topics in life, courage is, for example, the center point or balance point of a pendulum where fear is on one side and confidence is on the other. Aristotle speaks of this as corresponding vises. Aristotle states that happiness depends on living in accordance with appropriate virtues. He says a virtuous person is naturally going to behave…

    • 1604 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Odyssey: The Human Ideal
    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages

    The Odyssey: The Human Ideal

    The basic idea behind Aristotle’s book is that the ultimate goal in life is to achieve true happiness. This particular idea makes the most sense to me. “Happiness, then, is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed” (Aristotle, Page 15). This quote states that happiness is the final, the end and all other things will lead up to this. Happiness is stated to direct our actions because people all want to be happy. This idea gives people the feeling of “self-sufficient” because no other person can make another person achieve the ultimate good because it is all dependent on the person. Happiness is a perfect thing because no one truly knows what it is until they reach it themselves. The idea of happiness is subjective around the world given the different cultures so it is impossible to even begin to describe specifically how to reach the ultimate good. He also says "Since happiness is a certain sort of activity of the soul in accord with complete virtue, we must examine virtue; for that will perhaps also be a way to study happiness better" (Aristotle, 16). Happiness is a virtue and in order to know happiness then you need to have an idea of what a virtue is. Virtue is the behavior showing high moral standards. Moral standards are important in all culture and especially in the Geek culture because of the gods who…

    • 1514 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics

    Happiness is the goal that everyone seeks. Some people think that they seek honor, wealth, or any number of things. For example, if someone claims that they seek wealth in actuality they are seeking what they can do with that wealth. The same is for honor; they seek what other is giving them by being honored. Happiness is more like contentment. We do not make choices for the sake of something else; we make them for our own sake. The highest form of good which will create the most happiness must be something final. Happiness is the final goal that we want to reach. We reach happiness sometimes but it is something that cannot be achieved all at once. It is something that must be achieved by constantly striving for it. “Happiness is self-sufficient”, it needs nothing else because it has everything it needs. What gives someone happiness is relative to that person and different for everyone. If our ultimate goal is happiness then we have everything that we need. So striving for happiness is actually striving for everything we want and need. Therefore if we have happiness we need something else. (Book 1 Ch. 2 p.48, Ch. 7, p.50, Ch. 7 p.51-52)…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Aristotle Virtue Ethics
    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Aristotle Virtue Ethics

    The second term, telos, is the end, purpose, aim, or goal that one should be trying to achieve. One can only achieve eudaimonia by fulfilling their telos. The third term, arête, refers to whatever makes a thing an “outstanding specimen” of its kind. This is often also called virtue. To Aristotle, the “good” or “virtuous” life is achieved whenever ones potential is fully actualized.…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics