Q: What is the good life?
Aristotle studied a wide plethora of topics; one topic that Aristotle had groundbreaking views on that really speaks to me is that of ethics. While we don't have many of Aristotle's original writings regarding ethics, his son, Nicomachus, was kind enough to bring together many of Aristotle's beliefs on the topic to form what is now known as Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Nicomachean Ethics, a ten book work, is the most highly regarded literature that details Aristotle’s beliefs about ethics. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle gives his answer to the ever-pressing question, "what is the good life?" Aristotle believed that the good life was composed of three parts: the philosophical life, the political life, and the voluptuary life. Within these three parts, it was important to find a balance - similar to the balance needed between the four elements. It is the balance of these parts that help to lead us to Aristotle's answer to what the reward of the good life truly is, eudaimonia.
A: Eudaimonia
Eudaimonia is typically translated to happiness, but Aristotle wasn’t really talking about contentment like we consider happiness to be today. He was referring to a life well lived and human flourishing. Eudaimonia is striving, pushing yourself to your limits, and achieving success. We achieve eudaimonia, by functioning as we are meant to. What is a human’s function, though? Not something as simple as reproduction or growth, things like plants and animals do those and, according to Aristotle, they fall lower on the scale than us. Rather, human’s function is the activity of rational soul in accordance with virtue. What is virtue though? Yes, question after question arises when working through this material, but we will continue on systematically, as Aristotle would have wanted!
Connections
When I think about these ideas, I am reminded of many things we have already studied in our time in Greece. The fact that Aristotle considered the voluptuary life to be one of three core aspects to be balanced reminds me of course of Dionysus, the god of theater, pleasure, and blurring boundaries. The fact that this voluptuary factor must be balanced with political and philosophical factors reminds me of Delphi, where there is a balance between Apollo and Dionysus, between order and chaos, between political and religious life. When I read that Aristotle wrote that eudaimonia could be achieved by pushing one's boundaries, I was immediately drawn back to agon, and the Panathenaic games. It is easy to see the impacts that life in Ancient Greece had on Aristotle and his beliefs, and it is amazing to be able to make all of these connections.
Virtue:
Aristotle's views emphasize an individual’s character rather than that individual's ability to follow a set of rules. I see this aspect as a cornerstone of his beliefs; Aristotle's aim was not to encourage people or to produce students that would simply follow a set of rules. He focused on character, development, and the ability to see the truly right thing to do. Aristotle also argued that nature built into us the need to be virtuous. As we feel the need to secure food and shelter, we are also programmed to go about life in a virtuous way.
Virtue is defined by Aristotle as doing the right thing at the right time in the right way to the right people. Easy enough, right? He believed that if we developed our strong character traits, it would lead to good behavior. Character is developed through habituation, if you perform virtuous actions repeatedly, your character will be strengthened over time. Similarly to how your character strengthens and your virtue increases by repeating virtuous acts, your character weakens the less you perform virtuous acts. Aristotle believed that we should follow moral exemplars, people who are already very virtuous, so that we know what is and is not virtuous.
There are a couple of ways to think about virtue in our everyday lives. First, virtue can be found in good purpose or following a good plan in life. If you have a strong, honest plan to lead a good and successful life, you are on the track to virtue. Virtue can also be thought of as the perfect balance between deficiency and excess. Perfect virtue is found at the midpoint between the vice of deficiency and the vice of excess. Here we see examples of virtues, and their corresponding excesses and deficiencies.
Of course, it’s important to note that no virtue can be found in certain actions. The examples Aristotle gives are murder or adultery: there is no perfect balance between too much or too little of either of these because it would not be virtuous to commit either act at all.
Following these guidelines, living your life by a good and honest plan, learning from those who are already virtuous, and finding the balance between deficiency and excess is what makes a person virtuous. Being virtuous leads to eudaimonia, that feeling of flourishment.
Wisdom:
Aristotle argues that wisdom is made up of both scientific knowledge and intuition. The combination of these two factors is what helps us arrive at important truths, and contributes to our ability to act virtuously. Therefore, this wisdom is what helps us to pursue the good life. We couldn’t reach eudaimonia without wisdom, and we couldn’t be wise without moral virtue.
Complicated and twisted, there are clearly many things that go into being virtuous as Aristotle had in mind.
"Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom." -Aristotle
Sources
Kenny, Anthony J.P., and Anselm H. Amadio. “Philosophy of Mind.”Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 30 Mar. 2020, www.britannica.com/biography/Aristotle/Philosophy-of-mind#ref254723.
“The Internet Classics Archive: Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle.”The Internet Classics Archive | Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.2.ii.html.
Plato and Aristotle: Crash Course History of Science #3 Youtube Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh0fxJkvL44
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