...definition of good, and the definition of happiness reached by considering the function of man in The Nicomachean Ethics. At first Aristotle states that the good we seek is different in actions and arts and that the good of each is “that for whose sake everything else is done”. So in every action pursued supposedly there’s an end: “therefore if there is an end for all that we do, this will be the good achievable by action”. Since there’s more than one end, not all ends are final. Some ends are merely pursued for the sake of another. Evidently if there’s one final end, then that’s what we seek, but if there are more than one, the most final one’s the one we truly...
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...Final Essay Both Kant and Aristotle discuss their own interpretations of what morality is and what it looks like. They have very different ways of looking at what it means to act morally and what needs to be done to achieve morality and how happiness factors in to morality however. Aristotle believes that the end goal of morality is happiness. Happiness is the “final end” to all moral actions, it is the thing all humans are striving for even subconsciously. It is the final end because all actions lead to happiness, but happiness can only lead to itself, you build a ship to travel, you travel to trade, you trade to make money, and so on until you reach happiness but there is nothing greater than happiness. Aristotle reasons that since happiness...
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...thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has been rightly declared to be that at which all things aim.” Every human person, from the creation of man to the present day, whether knowingly or unknowingly, has been seeking one thing, one idea, one goal: happiness. From his earliest years, a human being’s natural inclination is to seek pleasure and avoid pain. The idea of happiness is a parallel to the idea of an ultimate good, mankind’s highest aim and is defined as a life of excellent function of of the rational faculties. Every man is striving for the good by means of the result of his actions, which are done for a purpose with an end in view. Everyone...
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...Interpretation of Happiness People go through their lives looking for happiness. Is it found in something we do? Is it found in what we have or the people we are involved with? What is happiness? Happiness is simply the state of being happy, but is it really that simple? Aristotle talks a lot about happiness or eudaimonia (a person’s well being) a lot in his work. Aristotle believes there is a “two- tiered” conception of eudaimonia” (Page 1) that is split between the masses or what we would call the common people and the cultured people also known as the educated or upper class. In this paper you will learn what Aristotle believed happiness was and how he thought that we could achieve it. Aristotle believed that happiness was a supreme good or the “highest of all ends” (Hutto 384) and also that the end of political science aimed to it. Aristotle believed that political science “determined what sciences are necessary in the states” (Aristotle 10) and that “the good of an individual is identical with the good of a state” (Aristotle 11). So if “moral purpose aspires to some good, what is in our view the good at which the political science aims, and what is the highest of all practical goods?” (Aristotle 13). The answer to this question was found to be happiness. At this point there was an agreement between two groups of people. These groups of people were known as the masses (common working people) and the cultured (educated upper class). Both groups agreed that happiness was the supreme...
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...seems to be in tension with Kant’s view that a dutiful action is motivated by the reason for your action, maxims, undertaken out of reverence to the moral law. Although dutiful actions conform to ‘the good will’, they may conflict with happiness. I will argue through Aristotle’s function argument, Kant’s definition of a good will and the parallels of their requirements for moral acts that although their claims about the nature of virtuous and dutiful action seem to be in tension with each other, they both agree the source of virtuous and dutiful actions is reason....
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...ARISTOTLE'S EUDAIMONIA Eudaimonia stands for happiness in Greek. Aristotle argues that the highest good for human beings is happiness. He insists that every action performed by humans is to pursue happiness. Aristotle also argues that human action is always aimed at some end or good. This "good" may not be viewed as a good action or any good by others, but for the doer of the action ("good"), the activity will be perceived as good and that it will bring a favorable outcome. Aristotle also said that all of our actions resulting in ends or goods form a hierarchy. This hierarchy, incorporates a ladder of things, and this ladder would categorize things according to their importance. And the most important thing would be on top of the ladder, thus being the ultimate end. This ultimate end is what all the actions aim to reach at or achieve. [This end must be self-sufficient, it must be attainable and it must be what we want]1. Therefore, because happiness includes all these, then it must be the highest good. An example of this ladder could be a person working hard to lose weight or trying to stay in shape. The bottom step of the ladder is the person working out in a gym, but why is the person working out? To lose weight or maintain their shape. Why does the person want to lose weight or maintain their shape? To look good physically and to be healthy. Why does the person want to look good or be healthy? To be attractive and to lead a stress-less and a comfortable life. And why does...
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...he purpose of ethics for Aristotle is simply to find the ultimate purpose of human life, once again demonstrating his emphasis on teleology. Ethics falls under the category of practical sciences, since its concern is not knowledge for its own sake but rather for the purpose of application. Aristotle first recognizes that happiness is the ultimate good, since all other goods are intermediate while happiness is final. We pursue other goods to achieve happiness, but happiness is valuable in itself. The problem then becomes the question of how to achieve happiness. Pleasure is undeniably the motivation behind many actions, but it puts humans on the level of animals. Honor is another possibility, but it places too much emphasis on the praise of others. Aristotle concludes that the means of happiness–and hence the purpose of human existence–is virtue. Virtue involves habit and choice. By making the proper decisions, we eventually develop a virtuous habit or disposition, so that we need not run through the catalogue of options every time a moral dilemma presents itself. Rather, we act according to our disposition, which has been cultivated by past choices. The question then arises: how do we make the right choices? For Aristotle, the virtuous choice was the mean between two extremes: excess and defect. For example, between profligacy and insensibility there lies self-discipline; between obsequiousness and coldness there lies friendliness. Aristotle goes on to discuss the concept of...
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...lifetime?”. From the micro perspective, the whole chapter is about whether happiness should be defined as permanent or momentary. Starting with Solon’s words and opposed examples illustrated by Aristotle, Aristotle leads us to deeply develop the definition and understanding of happiness. In his opinion, “happiness has permanence and is not amenable to changes under any circumstances”. Another element, for instance, fortune has the power to influence one’s happiness and revolve many times in one’s lifetime; however, Aristotle shows fortune is not determinant for happiness and merely an accessory of human life. Furthermore, “the happy man will have the attribute of permanence, and he will remain happy throughout his life” because the happy man will choose to do activities in conformity with virtue. Aristotle concludes that “the activities determine a man’s life, no supremely happy man can ever become miserable, for he will never do what is hateful and base”. Based on the true meaning of happiness, Aristotle advocates that it is the activities that matter rather than the outcomes. Further analyzing the statement of “No supremely happy man can ever become miserable” from the macro perspective should be focused on three key words in the statement. First of all is the “happy”, which is equivalent to happiness that is considered the highest good in human life. Happiness can be regarded as the highest good due to its qualities of finality and self-sufficiency. In order to achieve the...
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...accurate, more enduring, and better, while an alien pleasure impairs the activity. The pleasure proper to a good activity is good, while the pleasure proper to a bad activity is evil. Just as each animal is thought to have a proper function, it also has a proper pleasure which corresponds to the activity of that function. The pleasures proper to human beings are those which correspond to the activity of a perfect and blessed man. Section 6: Let us review what has already been said about happiness. Happiness is an activity of some sort which is chosen for its own sake and is self-sufficient. Actions according to virtue are chosen for their own sake. Happiness is not found in amusement, for it would be absurd to argue that the goal of a person's life and work is amusement. Rather, amusement is chosen for the purpose of relaxation, which is necessary to enable a person to engage in serious work. Everything is thought to be chosen for the sake of something else except for happiness. A happy life is a life according to virtue. Section 7: Since it has already been established [in Book One] that happiness is an activity according to virtue, it is reasonable to posit that it is an activity according to the highest virtue, which would be an activity corresponding to the best part of man. The activity of the intellect is the best human activity, since it corresponds to the highest part of man, is concerned with the best objects, is the most continuous activity, is self-sufficient...
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...Aristotle also affirms the idea that every act is aimed at achieving some form of good, the good then becoming the greater purpose behind every formal cause. His two affirmations are as follows; there is ethical significance in action and all actions aim at the good. However, as readers we are met with the same problem, as when reviewing Socrates Moral Intellectualism in that, we do not have a universally accepted definition of the good, leaving it vulnerable to subjective interpretation. With this ambiguity, regardless of if every action has the same goal, different paths and different outcomes will be strived for in order to reach this highest good. I do believe that all actions whether done for satisfaction in the present or for future gains...
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...The infinite also defines the highest goodness or the perfect existence. For a long time, both Dao and God had huge impacts in the moral standards and social values. Sadly, there are less and less people, especially teenagers, who appreciate these great ideologies nowadays. Of course, not all of the values are lost since Daoism or Christianity had already become inseparable parts of different cultures. Nevertheless, the majority tends to forget that these old wisdom might be extremely useful in life, particularly in topic as important as the pursuit of happiness. Happiness has always been an undying topic of many civilizations. For many philosophers, being happy is the purpose of living. The following part of essay is going to discuss what...
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...that the search for virtue and the human good goes beyond the natural realm. In the early dialogues the good and proper things are found through questioning. This however, changes in Plato's middle dialogues. In his middle dialogues Plato leads us to the theory of knowledge. A shift toward the metaphysical guided by the first recognition of the Forms, that is, the true nature of all things. He claims Morals must be based on an appropriate political structure that can be upheld by leaders with strict scientific training. The theory of the Forms is not restricted to human principles; it however embraces the nature of all there is. Plato appears to further stress the differences between analogy, human relationships and celestial harmony. Vattimo’s idea of “platonic fallacy applies to the middle dialogs. Vattimo believes that Plato took the wrong direction with his decision to incorporate straight forward answers in his dialogues. Philosophy for Vattimo is about thinking and discourse no blunt lecturing. Therfore the Entry of the middle dialogues is jarring an infact is not philosophy. Question 2 Plato’s believes that his theory of the forms is the way to knowledge, as expressed in the Platonic Dialoges. It is Plato’s assertion that each and every thing has a perfected intangibility (that is a perfect state); understood and accessed only through the sub Ancient Philosophy Final Exam conscious soul. His explanation...
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...reality. According to Britannica.com, he was an ancient Greek philosopher and scientist, one of the greatest intellectual figures of Western history. He had a wide and a vast range of intellectual pieces. He was the founder of formal logic and the most outstanding as a philosopher among many. This paper will discuss how Aristotle philosopher’s perspective of virtue ethics is applicable to ethical practices in business and accounting. I will give a brief synopsis on Aristotle’s history. I will discuss his view on distributive justice and how it applies to ethics. Finally, I will discuss how Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics philosophy, why it is valuable and how it potentially connects to accounting and business. Aristotle vision for a “good life” can be...
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...Aristotle moved to different locations after the death of Plato and remained in Chalcis where he owned his estate until his death in November 322. Aristotle had five main points of his ethical philosophy happiness, virtuous life, moral virtue, moral responsibility for his actions, and moral action in a social environment. I’m going to summarize and focus on two of the five main points, happiness and virtuous life. According to Aristotle, there is no true and same definition of happiness. The man will define happiness and it will depend on what they feel is happiness. The act that caused happiness and the time that happiness occurs. “The highest good and the end toward which all human activity is directed is happiness, which can be defined as continuous contemplation of eternal and universal truth.” Happiness varies with the type of individual, some individuals find happiness in sensual pleasures, others find it with success, and others can find happiness with the contemplative life. There’s no right or wrong answer it depends on the individual and how they define it. Aristotle also states “happiness can be acquired from learning, discipline, chance or from something else.” Does happiness come from external good? While reading, I reflected on my thoughts of happiness and what makes me...
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...view of human good and good will. However, after a thorough inspection of each philosopher's theories, I found that after initially leaning toward Aristotle’s theories I discovered that Kant's idea of good was found to be more captivating than Aristotle's, in that Kant's view addressed good in a complete sense through categorical obligations of man. Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and was passionate about the virtue ethics, as were a lot of the early philosophers in Greece. He was a student of Plato and wrote on a variety of topics. “Aristotle set the tone of the virtue ethics approach with his observation that in exploring the moral dimension of experience, he said we are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live. A sentiment that echoed Socrates’ commitment to moral action.” (Chaffee, 2013, p. 482). Aristotle believed virtue ethics was the cultivation of a virtuous person to be the goal of ethics. He believed that genuinely virtuous people would act in a moral way, as a reflection of their moral goodness. Aristotle’s main piece of work in this category is called The Nicomachean Ethics. In his book Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle asks his reader what they would consider to be good. Aristotle listed a few common examples such as, having good health, being honored, pleasure, and friends. Aristotle advanced his argument by digging deep to the root of every good action performed. He remarked “if a man kept questioning various actions he deemed to be good, he would...
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