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Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics The Good for Human Beings (Eudaimonia…
Aristotle’s Virtue Ethics
The Good for Human Beings
Our activities aim at various goods
When there are different components, the overall end is better
These activities are undertaken for the sake of an overall end
An end we desire for its own sake is good for us
Eudaimonia
Good for human life
Living well and faring well
Flourishing
Needs are met
Live as best as a human being can live
People disagree on what this is
Cannot be just pleasure as we share this with animals
Cannot be money as that is instrumental and is not an activity
Cannot be honour as others must honour you but achieving that must be what is good
Having virtues is not enough for a good life
You can have virtue while asleep
Compatible with suffering great misfortune in life
Contrasts with happiness
1
Not a state of mind
Characterises the activity of living
2
Not subjective, but objective
Not a judgement the person themselves have any special authority over
3
Not easily changed
Evaluation of a person's life
Final Ends
If pleasure, honour and knowledge are final ends, doesn't that show that eudaimonia is not our only good?
Not yet
Some we seek for their own sake and for the sake of something else
Final ends are constitutive parts for eudaimonia
Knowledge
Own sake
Pursuing it for the sake of living well
Everything we do is for the sake of living and faring well
If there is a final end which we never seek for the sake of anything else, this is 'without qualification'
Good should be self - sufficient
Eudaimonia is the most desirable thing
To add another foal is just to make that other thing part of eudaimonia
Eudaimonia is the only self - sufficient good
The Function Argument
Function and virtue
Function
The ergon of something
The ergon of an eye is to see
Characteristic form of activity of something
Insight into what type of thing it is
Evaluative standard for that thing
Something is good when it performs its characteristic activity well
In order to fulfil ergon, a thing will need certain qualities
Virtue
Sharpness is a virtue in a knife designed to cut
Functioning rather than purpose
The Argument
Virtue for human beings will be those traits that enable them to fulfil their ergon
Characteristic activity of humans
We are alive is not distinct
Guided by reason
Our ergon is living as a rational animal
To fulfil our ergon, we must be guided by the right reasons
Eudaimonia consists in the activity of the soul which exhibits the virtues by being in accordance with reason
Eudaimonia is living a life in which one exercises the virtues
This must apply to a person's life as a whole
Testing the analysis
There are three types of things good for us
Mind
Worth more than the others
Body
External
Analysis says eudaimonia is living well
Eudaimonia involves virtue, pleasure and wealth
Virtue
Possession is not enough
Must be acted upon
Employment and achievement
Pleasure
Found in what we love
Life of the virtuous will be pleasant
Wealth
We need a certain amount of external goods
Good fortune is needed for a good life
Can you call someone eudaimon while alive?
Something terrible could happen
Absurd once dead
Aristotle solution
Fortunes change
Living virtuously has much greater permanence
Rare for a virtuous person to lead a bad life
A virtuous person is 'eudaimon' while they live, if they have sufficient external goods