Comparison Of Aristotle And Aquinas : The Highest Human Good

Nicomachean Ethics brings up five points of ethical philosophy that, when followed, allow one to attain a virtuous life. According to Aristotle, the highest good and the destiny toward which all human activity is focused is happiness,

Thomas Aquinas was an Italian philosopher who lived during the time of 1225-1274 AD. Aquinas was most known for his studies in faith and reason. Aquinas’ ethics relies on the idea that there is a God and that God is a perfect and loving being who is cares for his creation. But, Aquinas does not believe that God has a set of commands that distinguishes right from wrong for each individual to follow. A way to explain these rules is by the Divine Command Theory. To further explain, these rules are better defined as the moral status of an action determined by the will or commands of God. It seems that God created the distinction of right from wrong in order to aid human beings to act in a way that is morally correct according to his commands so that they could achieve perfect happiness. Aquinas’ tells us that perfect happiness is a perfect relationship with God. The Divine Command Theory is completely independent of whether or not anyone believes it and is applicable to anyone at any time. God has also wired all human beings in a certain way in which we have the ability to perform virtues in order to fulfill functions and acting in ways that are against virtues and functions would not be beneficial to the human as that is not how God has created us and commanded us to act. By understanding Thomas Aquinas’ ethical views, we are able to better understand the idea of the Divine Command Theory and why these two ideas go well together in discussing ethical decisions.

The naturalistic conception of human hights can be traced back to natural rights and natural law theories which were propounded by Thomas Aquinas in his works. These theories influenced the works of 17th and 18th century philosophers like; Grotius, Pufendorf, Locke, Hobbes and Kant. The doctrine of natural law also called moral law was at the centre of Thomas Aquinas’ moral philosophy. Thomas Aquinas’ moral philosophy also influenced Consequentialist, Normative and Teleogical approaches to human

To support Aquinas’ claim that money, honor, fame, power, goods of the body, or pleasure is not required for human happiness, one may cite they share ends for the sake of human beings. That is, their ends are meant only to fulfill human capacities

When Aristotle first published his work entitled “Nicomachean Ethics”, you can imagine that numerous philosophers, scholars, and ordinary citizens were deeply contemplating his idea of the Highest Good Through the actions of virtue and reason, the act contemplation satisfies Aristotle’s characteristics as the Highest Good Being a self-sufficient, and complete activity, the ability to understand our function as human beings through contemplation achieves the Highest Good

Aristotle is a dichotomist, which means that he believes that human beings consist of two major elements, the body and the soul. The body is the physical matter that one can see, where the soul is the feelings and desires one has; the things you cannot touch. Aristotle believes that we have three major elements of the soul which are pleasures, desires, and feelings. These elements are where we find our virtues. In book one of The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses that virtue is the highest human good. This being said, there are two qualifications that the highest good must have, “The good must be something final and self-sufficient,” (Aristotle, 10). By final Aristotle means that which is in desirable in itself, and not sought for the sake of something else. By self-sufficient Aristotle means something that does not depend on other’s bestowing it. Aristotle gives us the sense that he believes that politics is about the human good and one cannot begin to practice politics or political science well; unless one has the idea of what the good actually is. In book one; with many arguments to support his theory, he tells the reader that the good is intellectual and moral virtue. One of his arguments is he believes that you need a moderate amount of both health and wealth to be able to fully develop the virtue. He sees these two aspects as a form of equipment because if one is constantly ill or does not have a sufficient amount of money there will be many obstacles in reaching

In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discusses about the concept of good: the existence of multiple goods rather than a single, universal good; the highest good to mankind being happiness; the varying interpretations of happiness among men; etc. In defining what happiness is not however, Aristotle discusses about the concept of honor and its inequivalence to genuine happiness, despite contrary belief. And in doing so, he establishes the motif of action versus inaction when describing the best ways to achieve happiness, heavily favoring action against inaction.

states that sometimes the sensory desires can become excessive, and that we should exercise moderation. This is similar to the Epicurean idea of a life of moderate pleasures. Bourke also points out that Aquinas believed that each function of his moral psychology could be perfected through practice and making proper action into habit. Aquinas believed that by perfecting the volition, one would develop the habits of justice and charity. Aquinas viewed charity as one

Both philosophers, St. Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle, investigated the idea of happiness. Having Aristotle as a great influence in his life, Aquinas developed his own theories on happiness. In Sunma Theologica, Aquinas discusses what imperfect and perfect happiness is and how a person is able to reach both types of happiness. During a person’s lifetime, he/she is able to reach an imperfect happiness. It is not until the afterlife that the person can reach perfect happiness.

He is honored to be author of ‘The Nicomachean Ethics,’ which was in fact the 1st book ever written on the subject of ethics. The book is greatly influential, even in modern times. By an analysis of Aristotle’s literature, it can be observed that he primarily focused on preaching to be ‘virtuous’ rather than focusing on the theories of what ‘virtue’ is. According to him, in whatever way we choose to act, some action that is focused on achieving the desired end result or ‘good’ results comes from that person’s own perspective. Aristotle claimed that the maximum good which a person have desire to achieve is basically an end-point itself , a person’s action or struggles is for achieving that ‘end-point’, it may be regarded as a point of maximum satisfaction. Aristotle critically concluded that the happiness of a person satisfies these conditions completely, and hence the highest attainable good is regarded as happiness.

To Aristotle, ethics is not an exact science, it’s ruled by broad generalizations that work most of the time and are found with those of experience, the men of practical wisdom (Nicomachean Ethics, 1094b15-1095a10). We don’t need a focused study in the sciences to understand the good, all one needs is a proper understanding of how the external aspects of life: friendship, pleasure, honor, and wealth operate in concert. No aspects of friendship, pleasure, honor, and wealth ought to be practiced too much (excess) or too little (deficient); moral virtue is action performed between two extremes (Nic. Ethics, 1106b5-25). And it is by consultation that one may find the middle ground between excess and deficiency, The Golden Mean (Nic. Ethics, 1097b5-20; Nic. Ethics, 1104a10-25).

Aristotle established what is known as virtue/character ethics where morality is realized in the development of character traits. Immanuel Kant, however, refers to ethics as that which focuses on objectives, where if one has the intent to do well, they will achieve happiness described as deontological ethics. The next concept, utilitarianism, expanded by John Stuart Mill, is similar to Aristotle’s virtue ethics in its dependence on happiness but emphasizes that some pleasures are more valuable than

To start with, Aristotle highlights that the perception of virtue is different for everyone, and there are a lot of factors which influence it. For example, people's moral principles, mentality, the society they live in and its formative culture peculiarities. The highest human good is considered to be in close relations with the sense of happiness. As all people have different characters, attitudes to life, moral values, it is difficult to define the conditions on which their happiness depends. Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, writes that the highest human good "proves to be the activity of the soul in accord with virtue" (Aristotle, trans. Irvin T., 1999). In other words, it is the way of a person's appropriate behavior in the situations of different nature and difficulty in his or her life.

In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics he accounts that humans should make sacrifices and should ultimately aim first and foremost for their own happiness . In the paper I will argue that it is really in a person’s best interest to be virtuous . I will do this by first describing Aristotle’s notion on both eudaimonia and virtue , as well as highlighting the intimate relationship between the two . Secondly I will talk about the human role in society. Thirdly I will describe the intrinsic tie between human actions . Finally I will share the importance of performing activities virtuously .

The highest good according to Aristotle is happiness. Happiness is the highest good because the goal for everyone in life is to be find happiness. In order for us to achieve the highest good of happiness we must practice. By practicing and improving our well-being through good virtues, even in the hardest times, we are able to achieve the sense of happiness.