Nicomachean Ethics

Although, as Aristotle believes, everything we do in our life leads to some good, he makes it clear that some goods are subordinate to others, and that the greatest good is happiness. He believes that the knowledge of this good carries weight for our way of life, and makes us better able, like archers who have a target to aim at, to hit the right mark (Aristotle 2). To possess the ability to achieve this ultimate end; however, we must first have some sort of understanding as to what happiness is. The definition of happiness typically varies from person to person, some think it’s pleasure or something found in someone you love, others believe it lies in wealth and success, but Aristotle defines it as

In Book 1 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he argues that happiness is the best good, and the goal of an individual and of those leading and governing society. Here, happiness is understood as both living well and doing well, rather than the convention sense of happiness as an emotion. According to Aristotle, happiness is achieved though actions involving reason and in accord with virtue, or the best of the virtues of there are more than one. In this paper, I will provide a brief overview of the work and its author, then proceed to provide an overview of the ideas expressed and the argumentation supporting them, before finally performing an analysis and critique of the ideas expressed.

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,

In ancient times, gods were a holy image in people’s mind. Each god had its own role in the universe. Such as the role of creation, the controller of the nature, and the role of the destiny control. The gods had extreme powers, and controlled everything in the world. Worshiped gods became a daily routine for ancient people. In the minds of people in ancient times, worshiped their gods were to prevent these gods became furious, and punished them with their extreme power. Even though the gods were extremely powerful, in many epic texts we could see they also had emotions and characteristics that were just like humans. However, there were still some major differences between the gods and humans.

As Philosophy presents, happiness is the “highest good of a rational nature” and the “state of perfection achieved by the concentration of all goods within it” (page 27, 41). This definition, along with the notion that the supreme cannot be taken away from people, noticeably exhibits that happiness cannot be awarded by earthly gifts from Fortune and is the intrinsic good that lacks nothing outside itself and could achieve everything on its own. True and perfect happiness can only be achieved by the possession of the supreme good in which all goods are possessed. Meanwhile, God is happiness itself because God is the supreme goods as happiness and there cannot be two highest goods which differ from each

Maher Kara joined Citigroup’s healthcare as an investment banker in 2002, and on numerous occasions discussed mergers and acquisitions by Citigroup clients with his older brother Michael after regularly seeking advice from him. For the next three years, this dialogue continued but Maher soon suspected Michael was using the information they discussed for insider trading. While this was happening, Michael became engaged to Bassam Salman’s sister and began to share the inside information he received from his brother with Salman. Salman then approached his own brother-in-law Karim Bayyouk with his plans and traded on the information through Bayyouk’s accounts instead of his own. Bayyouk’s following trades were nearly identical with Citigroup’s

First of all, there are several Greek gods, each one in charge of their realm. The gods are human-like, and need humans to remain mighty or to fulfill their desires

Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10). True friendships are a rarity in today's culture. In Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, he delves into what a "true" or "complete" friendship should be. The friendship of David and Jonathan in the Old Testament lines up with Aristotle's criteria for an ideal and complete and n true friendship. David and Jonathan’s friendship meets Aristotle’s criteria that friends must be good and alike in virtue, they should be equal, and they must love each other for their own sake.

In the Greek imagination, literature and art the gods were given, both bad and good, human bodies. Just ad ordinary people they married, had children and fought.

The Torah contains many references to happiness and its attainment. The main word that is used to mean happiness is simcha. The Jewish people say in the daily prayers, “Serve G-d with joy” (Psalms 100:2). In Deuteronomy, G-d rebukes the Jewish nation and warns them that if they do not follow His words, they will be cursed with detailed specific punishments. G-d attributes all of these punishments to the fact that they “did not serve G-d with joy and with a good heart” (Deuteronomy, 28:47).

In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explores virtues as necessary conditions for being happy. A virtuous person is a person with a disposition toward virtuous actions and who derives pleasure from behaving virtuously. Aristotle distinguishes between two types of human virtue: virtues of thought and virtues of character. Virtues of thought are acquired through learning and include virtues like wisdom and prudence; virtues of character include bravery and charity, which are acquired by habituation and require external goods to develop. As a consequence, not all people can acquire virtues of character because not all people have the external goods and resources required to develop that disposition.

From the beginning of their evolution, human beings have been searching for the meaning of happiness. While many may see this to be an inconsequential question, others have devoted entire lives to the search for happiness. One such person who devoted a great deal of thought to the question of man's happiness was the famous ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle. In his book The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discussed the meaning of happiness and what it meant to live a good life. He asserted that the devise which has been invented to create what is good for man is called "politics;" and it "uses the rest of the sciences"¦so that this end must be the good for man." (Aristotle, I, ii) Aristotle also identified four general means by which people live their lives in order to gain happiness, but stated that only one was a means by which a person could actually attain it. According to Aristotle, it was not political power, wealth, or worldly pleasures by which a person could achieve real happiness, it was living a contemplative life.

Aristotle begins his exploration into the most outstanding life by attempting to figure what the highest possible good achievable is for human beings. He comes to the conclusion that most people will agree that happiness is the most sought after good. Happiness is self-sufficient and is the complete end of things pursued. However, they cannot seem to agree how to achieve happiness and what happiness is. In order to figure out what happiness is, Aristotle must evaluate the true function of human beings. This true function, as seen by Aristotle, is the key to achieving happiness. Aristotle describes happiness by saying:

Even though Aristotle mentions that contemplation brings happiness he later on mentions that it is hard for a human to achieve pleasure at its finest, at the right time and place, because such thing can only be accomplished by god. He talks about, happiness in relation to contemplation and then he says that god is the only one who can achieve happiness, through its highest form,

Explain and summarize Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. Do you think it is a valid ethical system? Why or why not? Give your reasons.