By Aristotle, an ethical life is a rational life which should be centered around the goal understood as the good. This is the central good. There are other goods in life, such as prosperity, friendship, power, health. However, they are all pointless without the central good. This good gives the other goods their point.

Aristotle claims that there is one supreme end of action, that is, a final good for man.

  1. Every action aims at some end, that is, some good, and the end in view may be either the activity itself or something produced by activity and distinct from it.
  2. Ends, i.e. goods, are subordinated to one another in a specific way.
  3. There is some end, i.e. some good, at which all actions aim.

Aristotle’s claim is hypothetical. He assumes that there is some end, i.e. good, toward which all our actions are aimed. He argues that there must be at least one end (good) which is not subordinated to other ends and which we pursue for its own sake. For if we desire A for the sake of B and B for the sake of C, and nothing for its own sake, then our desire would be empty and vain. If there is a final end, i.e. good, then knowledge of it will have a great influence on our lives.

For Aristotle, the final end is happiness – in Greek “eudaimonia”. The term eudamonia is derived from eu, “well” and daimon, “divine being”, suggesting a life favored by the gods. Only gods and human beings are capable of being eudaimon, and among human beings only adults. It is acceptable to call a child eudaimon in the expectation that his adult life will be eidaimon in the full sense. Regarding someone as eidaimon like ascribing a status. It is to imply that the person is admirable. Eudaimonia is not the possession of a single day or a short period of time, but of the whole adult life, eudaimonia is active and stable.

We never pursue happiness for the sake of anything else, though we pursue other things for its sake. Aristotle regards happiness as self-sufficient and as including everything desirable in itself. A happy life would be a life containing in full measure all the things that man regards as intrinsically worthwhile. He desires each of these things for the sake of happiness. He expects to be living a life which contains them, but not in the sense that he hopes to reach happiness as a result of achieving these other things. So, all these intrinsically worthwhile goods are ingredients, not merely instrumental means to a happy life. Happiness is absolutely final and self-sufficient, because it includes everything desirable in itself.

Happiness is best, and better than anything else, not in the way that, for instance, a bacon is better than eggs and tomatoes (the best of the three to choose), but in the way that a bacon, eggs, and tomatoes is a better breakfast than either bacon or eggs or tomatoes separately.

We all want eudamonia, but eudamonia is not the result or outcome of a lifetime’s effort; it is not something to look forward to, like a retirement. It is a life, enjoyable and worthwhile. For example, my goal is to have a good holiday. To that end, I plan to go fishing. I shall not go fishing in order to do something else afterwards. Yet, to go fishing is part of my idea of a good holiday.

Artistotle suggests that we can illuminate eudamonia by considering human function. The good of an item is a matter of its function. For example, the good of a flute player is a matter of playing well. And doing something well is equivalent to doing it in accord with the virtue or excellence (arêtê). So, our good or success will be a matter of our engaging in this life-activity, and doing it well, namely in accord with its proper virtue(s) or excellence(s).

The Function argument:

  • The human good is a good of the soul, not of the body (like health or beauty) or an external good (like money or power, or status)
  • The distinctively human way of being alive is rational action. Human being exhibits rational choice.
  • Eudamonia is living well and living well is living in accordance with virtue(s).

Aristotle is the champion of the ethics of aspiration. He makes an assumption that there is a set of distinctively human powers (virtues). Happiness consists in the possession and use of these powers over a considerable period of time. Virtue is necessary but not sufficient for happiness. Happiness evidently also needs external goods to be added to the activity, since we cannot or cannot easily do fine actions we lack the resource.

All ancient ethical theories (including that of Aristotle’s) are self-centered and egoistic. They do not begin with a concern for the others or the good of the others. An ethical thought is a thought about how to reorder one’s own life around one’s own good.

Bibliography:

  • Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I, 8, 1999 (Fine-Irwin)