Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics

“Virtue Ethics and the Good Life in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics”

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“Virtue Ethics and the Good Life in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics”

Introduction

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher who lived between 384 and 322 BCE. He was deeply interested in the idea of cause and purpose. On the Foundation Paper, you will have explored the ideas of the Four Causes and the Prime Mover. Both of these theories look at the idea of how things are caused and how they move towards their purpose.

In ethics, any theory that looks at how we become better people over time, or that looks at how we move towards our purpose is called a teleological theory, which means goal or purpose in Greek. Virtue ethics is teleological because it argues that we should practice being good or virtuous people over time. Virtue ethics is therefore not deontological (like Kant's ethics) and it is also not normative. It is known as aretaic ethics from the Greek word arête meaning excellence or virtue. Virtue ethics is not concerned with what we ought to do, but with what kind of person we should try to become.

Aristotle argued that every action we perform is directed towards some purpose that it tries to achieve something. He then argued that there are superior and subordinate aims. Subordinate aims are what we have to achieve first, before we achieve superior aims, for example, if you are hungry (which might be a superior aim) you need to make a sandwich to achieve that aim. Making the sandwich becomes a subordinate aim.

Initially the philosophy of Virtue Ethics, deals with the some of the means in which an individual should spend his life, has confused philosophers from its instigation. Some of the interpretations are very divergent relating to how an individual should spend his/her life in the most excellent possible way. According to my point of view that Greeks, and most significantly Aristotle, have given the best reasonable and logical description for an individual that how he can spend his life a “Good Life”. This research paper will try to deliver a thorough insight of Aristotle's rational in relation with his theory of virtue ethics.

With the purpose to describe the essentials of Aristotle's Virtue Ethics, a person should recognize and accept his most important purpose in the study, which eventually make him realize, what exactly means to be in the world well. Contrasting with ...