13intro To Philo by Dr. Daniel Kaufman

Introduction to Philosophy
Lecture XXII
Aristotle on Virtue and the Human Good
— Part I
Dr. Daniel Kaufman
College of Continuing Education & The Extended University
Missouri State University
Lecture XXII Aristotle on Virtue and the Human Good — Part I
The main question of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is: “What

is the human good?”
By which is meant:
“What constitutes human fulfillment/excellence?” or, alternatively,
“What is the praiseworthy human life?”
Aristotle believes there is more than one way to live an excellent
human life: Answers will draw upon his analysis of human nature,
moral and civic virtue, contemplation, and the relationship between
man and God.
Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

• One of the most philosophers of antiquity and perhaps,
of all time. The other is Plato, who was Aristotle’s
teacher.
• Tutor of Alexander the Great.
• Founded the Lyceum, the great rival school to Plato’s
Academy.
• Work in: physics, cosmology, zoology, logic,
metaphysics, philosophy of mind, ethics, politics, and
more.
• Aristotle’s science, metaphysics, and ethics became
official Church doctrine in the Middle Ages and
retained their grip on European thought until the
Renaissance.
The Teleological (Functional) Conception of ‘Good’ and ‘Eudaimonia’
• Telos: function or purpose
• Everything, every process, and every activity has its own distinctive good. Its good is the
fulfillment of its function.
• Aristotle states in Nicomachean Ethics, “There are many actions, skills, and sciences, it happens
that there are many ends as well: the end of medicine is health, that of shipbuilding, a ship, that of
military service, victory, and that of domestic economy, wealth” (p. 4, ¶2, translated by Roger
Crisp).
• A good hammer is one which pounds nails well and which lasts a long time. Pounding nails well and
lasting a long time comprise a hammer’s “good.” They are those things at which the hammer “aims.”
• The prevailing view, today, is that only man-made things have genuine functions or purposes; that
what seem to be purposes in nature are only the appearances of purpose, resulting from evolution by
natural selection.
• Purpose/function/telos is a fundamental explanatory concept in Ancient Greek science. It ceases to
be a fundamental explanatory concept after the Scientific Revolution of the 17 th and 18th centuries.
The Teleological (Functional) Conception of ‘Good’ and ‘Eudaimonia’

• Aristotle believed that every process, thing, and activity both natural and
artificial, has a function or purpose. Aristotle states, “Every skill and every
inquiry, and similarly every action and rational choice, is thought to aim at
some good; and so the good has been aptly described as that at which
something aims. But it is clear that there is some difference between ends:
some ends are activities, while others are products which are additional to
the activities” (p. 3, ¶1, translated by Roger Crisp).
• We really do not understand what a thing is or why it does what it does,
until we know its function/purpose.
• Thus, for Aristotle, the investigation of essences, purposes, and functions is
the most important task of any science or inquiry.
The Teleological (Functional) Conception of ‘Good’ and

‘Eudaimonia’
• Eudaimonia (ευδαιμονία): The Greek word for the excellence
that is distinctive to human beings: it translates, literally, as
“human flourishing” or “human wellbeing”, but it is commonly
translated as “happiness.”
• This is, in many ways, an unfortunate translation, since the word
‘happiness’ has a modern meaning—a positive or pleasant state of
mind or feeling—which does not capture its ancient Greek sense
and can lead to misunderstanding, in attempting to grasp the
ethical position laid out in the Nicomachean Ethics.
The Teleological (Functional) Conception of ‘Good’

and ‘Eudaimonia’
• Aristotle say that the science in which we study human
nature and the human function and good, is politics.
• Aristotle believes that it is not at the biological, but at
the social and civic levels of life where human nature is
most fully revealed.
Human Nature and the “Function Argument”

• That human beings have essential characteristics and functions Aristotle takes for
granted, inasmuch as both the parts of a human being have them and the roles that
human beings take part in have them as well.
• Aristotle states, “But perhaps saying that happiness is the chief good sounds rather
platitudinous, and one might want its nature to be specified still more clearly. It is possible that
we might achieve that if we grasp the characteristic activity of a human being. For just as the
good—the doing well—of a flute-player, a sculptor or any practitioner of a skill, or generally
whatever some characteristic activity or action, is thought to lie in its characteristic activity, so
the same would seem to be true of a human being, if indeed he has a characteristic activity.¶
Well, do the carpenter and the tanner have characteristic activities and actions, and a human
being none? Has nature left him without a characteristic activity to perform? Or, as there seem
to be characteristic activities of the eye, the hand, the foot, and generally each part of the body,
should one assume that a human being has some characteristic activity over and above all
these?” (p. 11)
Human Nature and the “Function Argument”

• Method of differentiation
• Aristotle’s method of identifying the defining characteristics and functions of human beings is to contrast
us with other living beings and note those characteristics which we have in common and those which
differentiate us.
• The idea is that any characteristic which differentiates one class from every other class is an identifying or
defining characteristic.
• Characteristic: basic life functions
• Fails to distinguish us from plants
• Characteristic: sentience (sense perception: sensation)
• Fails to distinguish us from animals
• Characteristic: “Activity in accordance with reason.”
• This, in fact, is the defining characteristic of human beings. “Activity” indicates both mental and physical activity.
• The human function is to think and believe in a rational manner. A life consisting of rational behavior and
thought is an excellent human life.
Next time: Anatomy of the human soul and the

analysis of moral virtue.
Things to think about while you read:
• Do you think if the virtuous person as one who does
not have bad desires or one who has bad desires, but
successfully resists them?
• Do we, today, generally think of virtue in terms of
moderation, as Aristotle does, or in terms of
extremes?

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Introduction to Philosophy

The main question of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is: “What

Aristotle (384–322 BCE)

The Teleological (Functional) Conception of ‘Good’ and ‘Eudaimonia’

The Teleological (Functional) Conception of ‘Good’ and

The Teleological (Functional) Conception of ‘Good’

Human Nature and the “Function Argument”

Human Nature and the “Function Argument”

Next time: Anatomy of the human soul and the

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