Definition: Political Science
For Aristotle, political science is both the study of how to organise societies so as to achieve their good and the study of how to secure the good for individual citizens. Thus, the term encompasses moral as well as political philosophy.
Definition: Eudaimonia
When the word 'happiness' is used in The Nichomachean Ethics, what is actually being referred to is the Greek term 'eudaimonia' which literally translates to 'good spirit.' Unlike the word happiness, which we commonly use to describe a feeling of pleasure
Definition: Virtue (Arete)
Generally speaking, a person, animal or thing exhibits virtue (arete) when it is performing its function properly. That the Greeks use the term arete in their discussion of ethics implies a strong sense that humans have a function just as knives do, and t
Definition: Extrinsic & Intrinsic Value
Intrinsic Value: Intrinsically valuable things are those that are valued or desired for their own sake. We don't desire them because they will get us something else desirable.
Extrinsic Value: Extrinsically valuable things are those that are valued becaus
Definition: Telos
Loosely translated, the word telos means 'end' or 'aim' or 'purpose.' According to Aristotle, all things have a telos which, together with their physical attributes and the organisation of these physical attributes, makes the thing what it is and defines
Definition: Endoxa
Endoxa is a Greek word that refers to commonly held beliefs or opinions. Throughout The Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle uses endoxa as a starting point for his ethical investigations.
Definition: Intellectual virtue
Cultivated through teaching and includes practical wisdom/rationality, theoretical wisdom/rationality, and general intelligence. Necessary for moral virtue.
Definition: Moral virtue
Cultivated through practice and habit. A state of character (not a passion or faculty). A disposition to choose the mean.
Definition: Excess (Vice)
Too much. Destroys virtue. Relative to the person and the situation.
Definition: Defect (Vice)
Too little. Destroys virtue. Relative to the person and the situation.
Definition: The mean (Virtue)
The desirable middle (intermediate) between the extremes of excess and defect. Relative to the person and the situation.
Definition: Virtuous action
Must be consistent with the mean relative to the particular situation. The agent must also (1) know that the action is virtuous, (2) choose the action for its own sake, and (3) the action must proceed from a fixed moral disposition.
Definition: Pleasure and pain
Inextricably linked to virtue. The pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain are the main causes of evil action. The pathway to virtue is to develop the appropriate attitude towards pleasure and pain and, so, come to experience them for the right reas
Overarching Summary of Aristotle's Argument
P1. Every individual action aims at some desired outcome (a 'good')
P2. There is some most
final end
toward which all my actions ultimately aim; the
chief good
P3. Because of our
shared human nature
, the final end or chief good toward which our actions u
NE 1.1 and 1.2
SUMMARY "Subject of Our Inquiry: All human activities aim at some good: some goods subordinate to others" and "The science of the good for man is politics.
- Every individual action aims at some desired outcome (a 'good')
- There are many different aims (or ends) - the end of medicine is health; the aim of shipbuilding is a vessel; the end of strategy is victory
- All ends are either extrinsically valuable (
NE 1.1 and 1.2
EVALUATION
Aristotle's reasoning commits the 'Roads to Rome' fallacy. Just because all roads lead somewhere doesn't mean they all lead to the same place. Likewise, just because all our actions are aimed at some end doesn't mean they all aim at the same one end. Ther
NE 1.3
SUMMARY "Nature of the Science: We must not expect more precision than the subject matter admits of. The student should have reached years of discretion.
Aristotle claims that in ethics (one dimension of political science) we should only expect as much accuracy and precision as the subject matter itself allows: "We must be content, then, in speaking of such subjects and with such premisses to indicate the
NE 1.4
SUMMARY "What is the Good for Man? It is generally agreed to be happiness, but there are various views as to what happiness is. What is required at the start is an unreasoned conviction about the facts, such as is produced by good upbringing.
P1. Every action aims at some end
C: Therefore, there is one goal, The Good, to which every aim is directed
P1. Although there is disagreement concerning what happiness (eudaimonia) consists in, it is agreed that it is the only thing valued for its own sa
NE 1.5
SUMMARY "Discussion of the popular views that the good is pleasure, honour, wealth; a fourth kind of life, that of contemplation, deferred for future discussion.
Aristotle considers several possible candidates for what
"the good, or happiness" might consist in and rejects all but one...
A life of pleasure?
No, because a life of pleasure, of idle enjoyment and play, is a life "suitable to beasts."
A life of politic
NE 1.7
PART 1 SUMMARY "The good must be something final and self-sufficient.
Aristotle introduces a set of criteria (i.e., 'formal constraints') that happiness (eudaimonia) must meet if it is to qualify as the chief or final good to which all our actions are ultimately directed:
P1. The chief or final good must be
attainable
throu
NE 1.7
PART 2 SUMMARY "Definition of happiness reached by considering characteristic function of man.
Although happiness (eudaimonia) meets the criteria established for the final good (i.e., attainable, an end in itself, self-sufficient, and most desirable), Aristotle recognises that these criteria tell us little about the nature of happiness and a "clear
NE 1.7
PART 2 EVALUATION The Function Argument
Do humans really have a single, shared, overarching function? Does this presuppose a divine designer who makes humans for a purpose?
Is rational activity really a definitive human function? Other animals may have the capacity to reason to some degree so w
NE 1.8
SUMMARY "Our definition is confirmed by current beliefs about happiness.
Aristotle assesses his conclusions regarding happiness (eudaimonia) against commonly held views. We might call this the
Argument from Popular Support
and Aristotle uses this as evidence for his Function Argument. First, he says, 'goods' have been divided
NE 1.8
EVALUATION Argument from Popular Support
Aristotle enlists the argument from popular support as evidence for his argument from functions.
Why must we consider the subject in light of what is commonly said about it? Just because people believe something to be true, does not make it so.
Is happine
NE
Book I GENERAL EVALUATION
Why does happiness (eudaimonia) have to be unique to humans, something you can get yourself or active? Why can't we have the same aim as other animals. We are also just another animal so couldn't our aim be pleasure?
Might it be possible for a person to i
NE 2.1
SUMMARY "Moral virtue, like the arts, is acquired by repetition of the corresponding acts.
Aristotle distinguishes between two kinds of virtue:
intellectual virtue
and
moral virtue
. Intellectual virtue is cultivated through teaching and includes practical wisdom/rationality, theoretical wisdom/rationality and general intelligence. Practical wi
NE 2.2
SUMMARY "These acts cannot be prescribed exactly, but must avoid excess and defect.
Just like, say, health or strength, Aristotle claims that virtues (e.g., courage, temperance) are destroyed by the vices of
excess
(too much) and
deficiency
or
defect
(too little) and preserved by
the mean
(the desirable middle between the two extremes).
NE 2.2
EVALUATION
Given that Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics is intended to be a practical guide on how to live well, and given that the mean is always relative to the particular person and situation one finds oneself in, how practical is it really? Is it useful?
NE 2.3
SUMMARY "Pleasure in doing virtuous acts is a sign that the virtuous disposition has been acquired: a variety of consideration show the essential connexion of moral virtue with pleasure and pain.
According to Aristotle,
pleasure
and
pain
are inextricably linked to virtue. He further claims that an appropriate
attitude
to pleasure and pain is necessary for virtue and this attitude needs to be developed from one's youth. For example, while a glutton
NE 2.3
EVALUATION
Is taking pleasure in doing virtuous acts necessary for virtue? Might it not be more virtuous in some cases to do a virtuous act when it is accompanied not by pleasure, but by pain or discomfort or even a total lack of inclination? Might this not be more
NE 2.4
SUMMARY "The actions that produce moral virtue are not good in the same sense as those that flow from it: the latter must fulfill certain conditions not necessary in the case of the arts.
Given that a person becomes virtuous by performing virtuous actions, Aristotle notes that a critic might say that it must follow that one is already virtuous if they perform virtuous actions just as one is already literate if they read and write correctly
NE 2.4
EVALUATION
Do we attribute different degrees of praise or worth on a person depending on whether or not they are conscious of doing the right thing?
If someone were to act in a virtuous way, how would we know they deliberately intended to do the right thing and woul
NE 2.5
SUMMARY "Definition of Moral Virtue: The genus of moral virtue: it is a state of character, not a passion, nor a faculty.
P1.
Virtues are either
passions
(e.g., appetite, anger, fear, confidence, envy, joy, friendly feeling, hatred, longing, emulation, pity),
faculties
(i.e., what we are capable of), or
states of character
(i.e., dispositions)
P2.
We can be praised or blamed
NE 2.5
EVALUATION
- As Phelan states, this argument is a reductio ad absurdum. It puts up three possibilities for what virtues are and reduces these options to the least absurd option. However, just because the other three options (passions and faculties) are not what virt
NE 2.6
SUMMARY "The differentia of moral virtue: it is a disposition to choose the mean.
Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e., the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle [i.e., reason], and by that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it."
Que
NE 2.6
EVALUATION
- Again, given that Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics is intended to be a practical guide on how to live well, and given that the mean is always relative to the particular person and situation one finds oneself in, how practical is it really? The mean is di
NE 2.7
SUMMARY "The above proposition illustrated by reference to particular virtues.
Aristotle attempts to give more precision to his notion of virtue by developing it through examples.
By moving from the general to the particular, Aristotle hopes to give us guidelines that are 'more true,' which resonates with his desire to provide his a
NE 2.8
SUMMARY "The extremes are opposed to each other and to the mean.
Three kinds of disposition: two are vices (excess and deficiency) and one is a virtue (the mean). Each is opposed to the other, but the greatest difference is between the two vices, for they are furthest from one another (e.g., there is a greater differen
NE 2.9
SUMMARY "The mean is hard to attain, and is grasped by perception, not by reasoning.
Aristotle emphasises that "it is no easy task to be good" and for this reason goodness is "rare and laudable and noble." Despite the obvious difficulty involved in choosing the virtuous action, Aristotle notes the following 'tips' to help guide us:
(1) Al