Summary
Highlights
The lecture introduces Aristotle's ethical works, primarily 'Nicomachean Ethics' and 'Eudemian Ethics', both of which begin with eudaimonia (happiness or flourishing) and move to arete (virtue or excellence).
Aristotle categorizes knowledge into speculative, practical, and productive. Ethics falls under practical science, concerned with correct conduct for a life of excellence. Key notions include happiness, virtues, freedom of will, responsibility, and moral character.
Aristotle agrees with Plato that happiness is the end of human desires and virtues are central to a well-lived life. However, he rejects Plato's idea that understanding 'the good' requires training in sciences and metaphysics. For Aristotle, living well requires a proper appreciation of how goods like friendship, pleasure, virtue, honor, and wealth fit together, learned through upbringing and habits, not just abstract knowledge.
Aristotle emphasizes that ethical life requires practical wisdom, which is gained through practice and experience, not just learning general rules. Moral principles are inherent in daily activities and discovered through their study. This contrasts with Plato's view that moral good is independent of experience.
Every action aims at some good, but wealth and honors are intermediate goals. The ultimate good must be self-sufficient, final, and attainable. Happiness fits these criteria, as it is desired for its own sake and is the ultimate end of human existence.
Happiness involves reason, man's highest function, and virtue. Happiness depends on actualizing rationality, which includes both knowing and doing. Virtue, as excellence (arete), is a habit achieved through repeated action, transforming what we do into who we are.
Aristotle distinguishes two types of virtues: intellectual and moral. Intellectual virtues relate to the excellences of our rational faculty (e.g., philosophic wisdom and practical wisdom). Moral virtues concern right choices and actions, acquired through a series of good, prudent actions and enabling balance between desires and emotions.
Human personality consists of passions, faculties, and states of character. Passions and faculties are not inherently good or bad but must be disciplined. A morally good person develops a habit or disposition to do what is right, controlling emotions, desires, and appetites. This virtuous state of character makes doing the right thing easier and natural.
Virtue is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a 'mean' between two extremes: excess and deficiency. This mean is relative to the individual and situation. Examples include courage (between rashness and cowardice), temperance (between self-indulgence and insensibility), and generosity (between wastefulness and stinginess). There is no universal rule; practical wisdom guides finding the mean.
Moral evaluation and responsibility apply only to voluntary actions, which are performed with knowledge, deliberation, and voluntariness. Practical intelligence or prudence guides decisions by evaluating alternative actions in light of rational principles and community welfare. A morally good person deliberately chooses virtuous actions that lead to happiness.
For Aristotle, a happy and good life is attained by the virtuous person who follows reason, has a well-formed character, sets proper goals, deliberates on achieving them, and has experience in making difficult moral decisions. Excellence is an art, a habit, not a single act, won through training and arbitration.