Aristotle
How Should We Live?
Summary of What Will Come
 The selection (Nicomachean Ethics, Bks. I and II) begins with Aristotle
describing ethics as an inexact art of inquiry and making certain remarks
about the purpose of ethical inquiry.
 Since every pursuit aims at some good, and since ethics has to do with
human actions, if we can find the good that is the end of human life, we
will have found what is morally good.
Background Information
Ancient Greek Thought
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Classical Philosophy
Socrates
P l at o
Aristotle
Socrates
Socrates
 470 B.C. - 399 B.C.
 Born and raised in Athens
 Stayed there his entire life, venturing out of the city walls only twice:
once on a walk (Phaedrus) and once to go to war
 Gave philosophy, for the first time, an anthropocentric, or humancentered, character
 Know thyself
 The unexamined life is not worth living
Socrates
 Never wrote anything
 What we know about him is mainly from his student, Plato
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Their views are indistinguishable from each other
Developed the Socratic Method, a questioning technique
S aw h i m s e l f a s a p h i l o s o p h e r a n d e d u c a t o r
Socrates, cont.
Rejected the traditional gods
B el i e v e d i n o n e d i v i n e b e i n g
Was put on trial for impiety and corrupting the young
W a s fo u n d g u i l t y a n d s e n te n c e d to d e a th
Died in 399 B.C.
The Apology
Plato
Who was Plato?
Ancient Greek philosopher
427-347 B.C.
Born to a wealthy political family
W a s a n e d u c a to r b y o c c u p a ti o n
Founded the Academy in Athens
His teacher and mentor was Socrates
Wrote, for the most part, in dialogue form
Conversation between two or more people
Main character was usually Socrates
Socrates would question participants, and through such
questioning, it would be uncovered that the participants mistook
false opinions for the truth
 That is, they mistook appearance for reality
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Aristotle
Aristotle
Born 384 B.C. in Stagira, Thrace
Father was a physician to the king of Macedon
At the age of 17 he went to Athens and joined Plato’s school
Stayed there until 437 B.C., when Plato died
Left Athens and became tutor to Alexander the Great, prince of
M ac e d o n
Aristotle, cont.
 Acted as tutor for three years
 344 B.C., he returned to Athens and opened his school, the
Lyceum
 As Alexander was conquering all of the known world, Aristotle
became unwelcome in Athens, and was asked to leave in 323
B.C.
 Died 322 B.C.
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Aristotle, cont.
Major works in metaphysics, ethics, politics and physics
We are concerned with his ethical theory
Tri-partite soul
Two types of virtue: practical and intellectual
Doctrine of the mean
Classical Greek Philosophy
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle
 Each was an educator
 For each, the learning process can begin only when the student
has admitted that he does not know everything
 Anti-Sophist
 Each glorified what it meant to be human, and with each the
emphasis was on the human soul. Man as a moral being was
em phas i z ed
Summary, cont.
 What is morally good is not individualistic and subjective, but is
rather universal and objective
 Each believed that truth could not be found in the world that we
live in, the sense world. We can have only opinion about this
world
 Truth can be found only in a realm that is changeless,and
above space and time. This is the intellectual world.
Summary, cont.
 The intellectual world is the world we must strive for
 This is the world of essences; that which is permanent. They
are among the highest levels of reality, and they are what
makes this world possible
 It is this world that gives us our standards of truth, beauty and
goodness/morality
 We know this world through reason
Summary, cont.
 Learning is a gradual process whereby we come to have insight
into this world
 This learning process is painful because we must make
sacrifices. That is, we must be willing to give up our opinions or
beliefs, if necessary.
 Each believed in the human soul and some type of immortality
 Each divided the human soul into three parts
 The Vegetative
 The Appetitive
 The Intellectual
The Human Soul
Summary, cont.
 E ac h e m p h a s i z e d t h a t h u m a n s c o u l d a c h i e v e h a p p i n e s s o n l y i f
they were moral
 For each, you could not be a good citizen unless you were
moral
 Each believed that our origin was One Divine Being
 Our souls have a divine element in them that we must nurture;
true learning is seeing this and seeking our divine origin.
Summary, cont.
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Our Divine Origin is One, Permanent, and the Cause of All
Each emphasized virtue: moderation, courage, piety and justice
To know is to know your cause/your origin
Soul is immortal
 God is the ultimate cause of all movement (locomotion and
physical change)
Summary, cont.
 For Aristotle, change in this world indicates that beings are
striving to reach perfection
 Each stresses that human happiness is fulfilling our talents as
humans. And that means becoming virtuous and striving for the
truth
 Plato: the Philosopher King, should rule
 Aristotle: Each man must be prepared to rule
So, Aristotle is saying that:
 He is going to tell us some things about how we should live and
what our priorities should be, but
 Since Ethics does not give us 100% right or wrong answers, his
recommendations are not 100 % correct
 A nd h e i s a l s o t e l l i n g u s t h a t :
 We have a responsibility to examine what our highest priority
(good) should be
Summary, cont.
 After suggesting several possibilities such as health or pleasure,
he settles on happiness as the true end since it is self-sufficient
or the "final" good.
 A discussion of the nature of happiness follows.
 E ud a i m o n i a : H a p p i n e s s
S0,
 HAPPINESS SHOULD BE OUR #1 PRIORITY!
 BUT WHAT IS HAPPINESS?
 PEOPLE DISAGREE ON WHAT TRUE HAPPINESS IS
So,
 Health alone cannot make us happy. So it is not our ultimate
priority. We want to be healthy so we can achieve something
el s e
 Wealth cannot make us happy, so it also is not our #1 priority.
We want wealth so we can achieve something else
 So health and wealth are sought for the sake of ‘something
el s e’
 That ‘something else’ is happiness
So, how do we become happy?
 Virtue is important to happiness; it is a necessary ingredient
 One virtue, moderation, plays a very important role
 Whatever is happiness, it must be final (not done for the sake of
something else) and it must be self-sufficient (if you have it, you
will not need anything else)
 We can define happiness or eudaimonia more precisely if we
can discover the unique qualities of human nature.
Outline
 Humans share with other animals a nutritive power (psyche or soul) that
makes nourishment and growth (biological life) possible.
 Humans also share with other animals a sensitive power (soul) that
makes movement, desire, and sensations possible.
 Unique to the human animal is a rational power (soul) that makes
theoretical and practical knowledge possible.
Intellectual Virtues
 The intellectual virtues
 There is a virtue or excellence (arete) associated with
theoretical capacity and it is called sophia or wisdom.
 There is a virtue associated with the practical capacity called
phronesis prudence or practical wisdom).
Intellectual Virtues
 The intellectual virtues make it possible for humans to know what is right
or good in general (sophia ) and to decide in specific situations
(phronesis ) what is the best thing to do.
 In order to live the good life, we must not only know the good and choose
the good, but also do the good. There must, in addition to the intellectual
virtues, also be moral virtues.
Happiness
 We are now in a position to define eudaimonia more precisely.
Since it is clear that happiness for the human animal (as for
others) is realizing the full potential of its nature, it follows that
the good life and hence happiness centers on cultivating and
living in accord with the intellectual and moral virtues.
Moral Virtues
 But what precisely are the moral virtues?
 They are a mean between two extremes (excess and
deficiency) with respect to both feelings and actions. For
example, with respect to confidence, courage is the mean,
rashness is the excess (too much), and cowardice the
deficiency (too little).
Moral Virtues
 The mean will vary with the individual.
 They are developed through practice until they become habit.
Moral Virtues
 Humans are not virtuous by nature and so good role models
must be provided early in their education to form moral
character.
Some actions have no mean (e.g., murder).
Moral Virtues
 What are the excesses, deficiencies, and the means with
respect to (1) feelings of fear and confidence?