Nicomachean Ethics Book I (On Happiness and Virtue)

Philosophy 104 A: Adi Amor, Yuri Pabila, Don Tang, Arie Wiersma

I. WHO IS THE PHILOSOPHER? Aristotle is a Greek philosopher born in 384 BCE in the northern city of

Stagira to Nicomachus and Phaestis.

Student of the philosopher Plato in the Academy in Athens, who was in turn the student of the philosopher Socrates.

Became tutor to the young Alexander the Great.

He founded his own school at the Lyceum, a meeting place and gymnasium named in honor of the god Apollo Lyceus. His students came to be known as "Peripatetics.”

Aristotle taught and wrote in Athens for about a dozen years until 323, when he was brought up on charges of impiety, just as his intellectual grandfather Socrates had been some seventy-five years before.

He died in Chalcis, on the island of Euboea, in 322.

I. WHO IS THE PHILOSOPHER?

II. WHAT ARE THE MAIN IDEAS?

“But in every action and choice, it is the end involved, since it is for the sake of this that all people do everything else.” (Chapter 7, 21-22)

II. WHAT ARE THE MAIN IDEAS?

Aristotle points out that in all that people choose to do, they know perfectly well that there is an end result to this.

It is precisely this particular end result that prompts them to a certain choice.ex.I am hungry. I will buy myself a snack (choice/action) to fill me up (end result/goal).

II. WHAT ARE THE MAIN IDEAS? NOTE: The choices humans make are

characterized by actions that are done with a purpose and a goal.

Actions that are based on or framed by specific goals are actions based on RATIONALITY.

Happiness (eudaimonia) as the ultimate end or goal (telos) of all human action.

II. WHAT ARE THE MAIN IDEAS?

“Happiness is considered the highest end because we pursue it in itself. Other things that we mistake for happiness (honor, nobility, pleasure, etc) are not good things in itself because we pursue them for the sake of happiness."

II. WHAT ARE THE MAIN IDEAS? Happiness, in this case, is a state of well-being

brought about by consistently doing good and thus living a virtuous life.

Happiness (eudaimonia) encapsulates VIRTUE (arete), the excellence specific to human beings as human beings.

To Aristotle, how to be happy is the question of how to live well as a human being, and living well is inseparable from attaining the virtue or virtues that make possible the best activity.

II. WHAT ARE THE MAIN IDEAS?

Right virtue leads one to live well and happiness is the activity of living well which the virtuous person is inclined toward, for it is part of the function of man to be naturally inclined towards the good.

III. WHAT’S THE SIGNIFICANCE? People these days are usually engaged in a lifelong

struggle to find purpose in their lives (as discussed in Ph101).

Although we create our own personal meaning for our lives, one thing common about it all is that we do it for the pursuit of happiness.

Everything that we aim to obtain are simply pathways leading towards our own happiness.

The ways in which we obtain it may vary, but at least we know our end goal.

III. WHAT’S THE SIGNIFICANCE?

Happiness as a goal and not a state means that one can only truly achieve happiness or realize if he/she has achieved happiness on their deathbed, when they have the chance to evaluate their entire lives.• Was it a life well-lived? Have I

accomplished my end goal or not?• Recall: Virtue

III. WHAT’S THE SIGNIFICANCE? Understanding the good in relation to

happiness is essential in coming up with our proper function as humans.• Survival• Ex. Beggars VS Adi

When one is happy, there is always a reason. You cannot be happy without knowing why.

III. WHAT’S THE SIGNIFICANCE?

Happiness as connected to success and the driving force behind all people’s actions.• Ex. Ask a girl in a store why she's there.

She'll tell you that she is shopping. Ask her why she is shopping. She'll answer because she is looking for a dress, shoes, top, etc. Ask her why she wants that item and she'll tell you, "because it makes me happy."

IV. WHAT DO YOU THINK? To a certain extent, happiness may just be

the end goal of all our actions. –Don

Happiness is selfish. –Adi

 Happiness can be BOTH a goal and a state. –Arie

Happiness as an end goal is a very ideal concept; is there really only one form of good, only happiness? –Yuri