Aristotle outline ETH 2050

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Oct 30, 2023

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Mesing 2021 // class use only // do not circulate ETH 2050, Aristotle outline Overview : Aristotle’s ethics, which later philosophers have summarized as “virtue ethics,” sets the tone for a number of other ethical frameworks we’ll examine by setting out from the claim that happiness understood as the highest good is the basis and goal of ethical thinking and action. By happiness (in Greek: eudaimonia ; also translatable as flourishing), Aristotle has in mind a stable state of well-being in which a person’s actions exemplify virtuous behavior. Aristotle does not view happiness as merely momentary bliss or some kind of target or nostalgic reflective idea, but rather a kind of lived condition that characterizes the virtuous person’s entire life. Although he rejects the more modern idea of an objective criterion for right action applicable in the same way for everyone, Aristotle considers the role of ethical reflection as aiding a person who has already formed good and virtuous habits to further internalize the reason and importance of doing so, in order that their happiness can be even more stably secured. Style notes : Aristotle’s style can be a bit of an obstacle, especially in this text which is actually assembled of student notes since it is based on lectures Aristotle gave to his students. At times it can seem like Aristotle presents his ideas either in hypothetical, broad-sweeping statements or in an uncertain summary of what people think in general. This partly owes to his ethical approach in assuming that others are in possession of at least some of the truth and thus the task of theoretical clarification (which, regarding ethics, cannot be too precise or lapse into direct commands or criteria for right action) consists in finding shared common ground. 1. Introduction: some general context - ethics (political science) as inquiry into highest good - teleology - question of precision; aim is doing better, not just thinking - Some important quotes: p. 47, “If, then, there is some end … the good and the chief good.” + p. 53, “if there is an end for all we do … goods achievable by action.” p. 66, “we become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.” p. 67, “matters concerned with conduct … matters of health.” p. 74, “Virtue, then, is a state of character … chooses that which is intermediate.” 2. Understanding happiness ( eudaimonia ) as the highest good - agreement in words but not substance - “the good” as explicit and implicit reason for thinking and acting (Plato; kind of life) - Aristotle’s critique of Plato - happiness as distinctly human: the “function argument” (Book I, 7) - the happy person - stable state of well-being - reacts well to circumstance and difficulty - virtue is about being good and not only doing good -is happiness a good basis for ethics? (continues on back)

Mesing 2021 // class use only // do not circulate 3. Virtue and how to acquire it - moral/practical virtue (active states of character) - neither for or against nature - habit / learn by doing - pain/pleasure like symptoms - “hitting the mean” (Book II, 6) - dynamic rather than relative - voluntary and involuntary choice What does virtue look like in practice? As Annas points out, some people criticize virtue ethics for not being egalitarian, i.e., for being a theory that argues for a context-based understanding of being a good person rather than setting out clear criteria or rules that always apply in the same way for everyone. Can virtue look differently in practice while still overlapping to enough of an extent that happiness and reason are shared bases for character and right moral action?

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