Aristotle Chief Good Essay

     With the possible exception of Plato, Aristotle is the most influential philosopher in the history of logical thought. Logic into this century was basically Aristotelian logic. Aristotle dominated the study of the natural sciences until modern times. Aristotle, in some aspect, was the founder of biology; Charles Darwin considered him as the most important contributor to the subject. Aristotle’s Poetic, the first work of literary notice, had a string influence on the theory and practice of modern drama. Aristotle’s great influence is due to the fact that he seemed to offer a system, which although lacked in certain respects, was as a whole matchless in its extent.

The three different ways of life according to Aristotle are the life of enjoyment/pleasure, the political life, and the contemplative life. The life of enjoyment/pleasure is a life that is purely devoted to pleasure, good, and happiness; when one lives as if they are a slave to sensual pleasure. Aristotle refers to the life of enjoyment as “completely slavish by choosing a life that belongs fatted cattle (Book I pg. 4)”, meaning this way of life does not correspond or consist of the rational nature in which each individual hold. Political life is a life that honor is used to convince one that their life is good and correlates to our rational nature. However, this life, like the life of enjoyment, is dependent on other people. Aristotle states, “for it seems to be in the ones who give honor rather than in the one who is honored. (Book I pg. 4)” In this way of life honor is a virtue, but it is a virtue that anyone can possess but be unfortunate or not good. Since both the life of enjoyment and the political life depend on someone else, Aristotle concludes the contemplative life is the highest or best way of life. This is because contemplative life on the basis means a life of true happiness and can possibly dodge difficulties. With the contemplative life, one is more than capable of engaging or

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, at an absolute basic sense, aims at the title of this course: the good life. In an age where philosophy and ethics were not largely developed, Aristotle aims to provide a universal standard for human flourishing and happiness, or the good life. His main argument is that all of our actions and goals are aiming towards human flourishment, but that each action falls into a range of virtues, where excess is one extreme and deficiency is the other extreme. The virtue that we all strive for, he states, is in the middle of these. For example, temperance is a universal human virtue, with pleasures and pains as the excess and deficiency. He states that virtues can be developed and learned over time and through practice,

Excellence is a function which renders excellent the thing of which it is a function is Plato’s definition of virtue. What does this definition really mean though? Plato and Aristotle both had their own unique arguments devoted to the topic at hand, and their own ways of describing what virtue really is. Defining virtue may seem to be an easy taste, but to truly understand the arguments behind the definition can prove to be very challenging.

Aristotle lists honor, pleasure, and wealth as the things believed to make humans happy. He believed that because honor could be easily taken away it was superficial and that pleasure, although enjoyable, was merely an “animal like quality”. Wealth was described as a vehicle to achieve greater status. The moderation of the three vices could be achieved but would not, in-itself produce or guarantee eudaimonia. Instead, Aristotle was of the opinion that wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice, would better lead person to happiness.

Aristotle’s work, The Nicomachean Ethics, consists of numerous books pertaining to Aristotle’s Ethics—the ethics of the good life. The first book discloses Aristotle’s belief on moral philosophy and the correlation between virtue and happiness.

To also be a liberal man you must first have respect for your own stuff, not being careless with it by giving it all away but only what is necessary at the right time. This is truly what he meant by it being a “mean” because it is the way of giving where its not giving in excess and its not giving in defect which would be giving to the wrong people; For those things amount to failure in a virtuous sense. One is not born a liberal man, he is created through out life, this brings us back to book one where he speaks of the stone and how it can not be forced to go up with out coming back down or how fire cannot be forced to burn down. If we were all created a liberal man there would be no problems at all and we would all be living on an equal plain. But life isn’t perfect and it will never be that way because were not all the liberal man. Not to sum up Aristotle in one sense but what he is basically trying to say I think is, you are who you make yourself and who you are surrounded with. I could be completely wrong but I feel that this is what he is

The philosophy of virtue ethics, which primarily deals with the ways in which a person should live, has puzzled philosophers from the beginning of time. There are many contrasting interpretations regarding how one should live his or her life in the best way possible. It is in my opinion that the Greeks, especially Aristotle, have exhibited the most logical explanation of how to live the "good life". The following paper will attempt to offer a detailed understanding of Aristotle's reasoning relating to his theory of virtue ethics.

The subject which the question focuses on is the view of Aristotle’s ideal state. The distinction between hierarchy and equality is at the heart of the understanding of Aristotle’s ideal state. He claims that an ideal state ought to be arranged to maximise the happiness of its citizens. So happiness together with political action is the telos of human life. This end can be reached by living a better ethical life. However, he endorses hierarchy over equality. On one hand we have the equality which benefits everyone; on the other hand we have the distinction of classes meant in terms of diversities and differences where the middle one appears to be the means through which the state is balanced. Furthermore what is clear for Aristotle is that

Aristotle is one of the greatest thinkers in the history of western philosophy, and is most notably known for expressing his view of happiness in Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle develops a theory of how to live the good life and reach eudaimonia (happiness). Eudaimonia has been translated into, living a happy and virtuous life. Aristotle’s definition of the good life as the happy life, consist of balancing virtues (arête), the mean, external goods, political science, and voluntary action.

ABSTRACT: This paper argues that Aristotle conceives happiness not primarily as an exercise of virtue in private or with friends, but as the exercise of virtue in governing an ideal state. The best states are knit together so tightly that the interests of one person are the same as the interests of all. Hence, a person who acts for his or her own good must also act for the good of all fellow citizens. It follows that discussions of Aristotle’s altruism and egoism are misconceived.

In this essay, I will discuss the theory of happiness by Aristotle, in one of his most influential works, the Nicomachean Ethics, which is still relevant today, over 2,300 years later. For Aristotle, the key questions he set out to answer included the ultimate purpose of human existence and the end goal for which we should direct all of our activities. Everywhere we see people seeking pleasure, wealth, and a good reputation. But while each of these has some value, none of them can occupy the place of the chief good for which humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act must be self-sufficient, attainable by man and final, "that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else" (Nicomachean Ethics, 1097a30-34). For Aristotle, that final good is happiness. In the first part of the essay, I will argue that we can only arrive at a clear conception of the human good and thus happiness if we ascertain the function of human being. In the second part of the essay, i will argue that happiness can also be achieved through other means that do not involve the function. I will finally conclude in favor of Aristotle’s theory of happiness.

As Pierre Hadot states in Philosophy as A Way of Life, “The Platonic sage would raise themselves by the life of their mind, which the Aristotelian sages raise themselves to the realm of the divine mind”. Although Aristotle does not address sagacity directly in any of his major works, in one recovered excerpt of Prorepticus, Aristotle begs the question: “what more accurate stand or measure of good things do we have than the sage [?]” in a work encouraging young people to study philosophy. As this is the only direct account of Aristotle speaking of the sage, it can be incurred that his construction of the archetype is in alignment with the sage as a virtuous person, or more Aristotelian specific, someone who demonstrates the intellectual virtues.

Aristotle (384 BC -322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, logician, and scientist. Along with his teacher Plato (author of The Republic), Aristotle is generally regarded as one of the most influential ancient thinkers in a number of philosophical fields, including political theory. Aristotle’s’ writing reflects his time, background, and beliefs.

Frequently discussed and debated are the ideas and philosophies of Aristotle. Larger than life, Aristotle had substantial influence on the formation and methodology of science as a whole, as well as specific disciplines. Many of his theories were well beyond the knowledge of ancient Greece (or what they thought they knew), and only in recent history has the science community begun to discover that many of Aristotle’s theories were actually quite close to reality. In addition, many of his theories brought questions to light that are still being considered and debated today. For example, one source contrasts Aristotle’s theories about when life begins to recent research on embryogenesis (Dunstan, 1988). From animal behavior to medicine, ethics and philosophy to theorizing on when life begins, Aristotle left a significant mark on what we call science.