Aristotle's Ethics

Notesheet

Aristotle purports to set out for us how we should live, apparently recommending the life of the Athenian gentleman.

courage
temperance
liberality (to do with attitudes towards one's wealth)
magnificence (ditto)
greatness of soul (to do attitudes to social inferiors)
good temper or gentleness
being agreeable in company
wittiness
(modesty)

Does he have anything more transcendent to teach us?

I develop a number of points, which may or may not be made to hang together into a single coherent account of ethics.

The good for human beings is what enables them to fulfil the way of life that is natural to them.

With a plant you have a conception of the plant's good, and of what is good for it.

What is good for it is whatever helps it attain the pattern of life that is characteristic of the species it belongs to.

E.g. Rhododendrons, frogs.

Ignoring the characteristic pattern of life of a species - factory farming ?

Is there a characteristic pattern of life for the human being?

If so, what is good for human beings will be whatever helps them live the life that is characteristic of the species...

Aristotle: Whatever it is that distinguishes the human being from other species will be the thing that defines their characteristic pattern of life. And what is distinctive of the human being is: rationality, or reason. (An analogy: the distinctive capacity to breath sulphuric acid fumes.) The exercise of reason plays a key role in the pattern of life that is characteristic of the human being. Thus, allowing ourselves and others to exercise our powers of reasoning is an important good for us.

Happiness

Happiness, according to Aristotle, consists in 'activity of soul in accordance with virtue'. It is living according to the pattern of life which is characteristic of the human species.

Other candidates for happiness:

Pleasure? Wealth?

Happiness is an attribute of a complete life:

'The life of a virtuous person 'has no need of pleasure as a sort of adventitious charm, but has its pleasure in itself.' (NE Bk. I, $8.)

"For one swallow does not make a summer, nor does one day; and so too one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy." (Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Bk. I, $7)

Can we all be happy?

"all who are not maimed as regards their potentiality for virtue my win it by a certain kind of study and care. (NE Bk. I, $9.)

The doctrine of the mean.

Examples:

too little the mean too much
impulse when danger threatens Cowardice Courage Rashness
attitude to giving and getting Meanness Liberality Prodigality
attitude towards the undeserved good fortune of others Malice Righteous indignation Jealousy

Nature today - the genes as defining the nature of a creature

Is it wrong to create artificial species?

The virtues are those dispositions that produce the pattern of life that is characteristic of the human being.

Virtue Theory

An action is good when it is the exercise of a virtue.

VP