Virtue Ethics
- NichomacheanEthics
- Aristotle
The Meaning of Life
❖ What’s the point!?!
❖ Seriously….what’s the point?
➢ Why struggle? Why work? Why learn? Why do all of it at all?
❖ The Ancient Greek Approach: Global Questions
➢ How should we live?
■ global approach to living, to being in the world
➢ Modern Moral Philosophy’s Q: How should we act?
■ local approach to individuated acts, to doing the right thing
➢ Ancient Moral Philosophy’s Answer to “How should we live?”
■ Happily!
■ Eudaimonia: the Greek term for “well being” or “living well”
❖ Quick Contrast with J.S. Mill
➢ Being “well-developed” is a means to the end of greater pleasure
➢ Being “well-developed” is not an end in itself
The Good Life
● Happy vs. Happiness
○ Not a transient state of how one is at the moment
○ Not a ýeeting feeling-based quality
○ Happiness is a state of life, of doing life well, ýourishing, or prospering in the fullest
● Epistemology of Happiness
○ Contemporary Solipsism:
■ Only you can tell if you’re happy…
■ Because only you can reliably report on your inner feelings
○ Greek Approach:
■ Happiness is not an exclusively internal state
■ Happiness has objective qualities
■ Thus, happiness (in general) can be known…if we know its features
● How does one know what “living well” is?
○ studyit. (note: the Greeks were not afraid to seek answers)
○ How do we do that?
What is <Living Well=…exactly?
● Preparing the Answer the Question
(What does it mean to live “the Good Life?”)
○ Identifying the Normative Elements of the Question
■ Goodness comes in diûerent forms, so clarify what sort of “good”
○ Standards must be reasoned
■ Need assurance that what guides the inquiry is rational (objective)
○ Value of the Inquiry
■ Personal investment in knowing rather than justifying preconception
● Means/End: types of goods
○ Means: things valued for the ability to assist one in getting something else that is valued
■ Instrumental Value (derived value): the tools to get valuable things
, ○ Ends: things that re valued in themselves, for their own qualities, regardless of whether they lead to
anything else
■ Intrinsic Value: the source/producers of value
The Good
● The Good: “…that which all things aim”
○ What is good guides all conduct
○ What is truly good is desired/sought only for itself
● Three Prerequisites For Understanding Happiness
○ Knowledge of Happiness Must Be of Practical Beneüt
■ Aristotle’s “worldly” bent vs. Plato’s Forms
■ Knowledge itself derives value (at least in ethics) from facilitating conduct (cf. the Carpenter
& the Geometer)
○ Proper Conception of Happiness Must Be TheGood
■ All good things are desired for the sake of living well
■ Though there are other things desired as ends, they are sometimes desired for the sake of
living well
■ This is not true of happiness, it is unique
○ Life Lived Happily Must Be Enough
■ Whatever happiness is, it should be self-suþcient to give a positive estimation of our lives
■ Parsimony: we should be able to make our way w/o the unnecessary
Popular Ideas of the Good Life
● The Diversity of Happiness (a vague and fuzzy notion)
○ Diûerent strokes for diûerent folks
○ What is happiness to you?
● Money Making: living to make money
○ Summarily dismissed as a confused notion of the good life
○ Reason #1 to Dismiss: compulsion alone makes us value this goal
■ Incidental/artiücial social constructions require money
■ Forced by this need, we view “making money” as a worthwhile goal
■ Not-natural (i.e. not a natural inclination nor a natural drive)
■ a child would be found on a playground thinking of ways to make money…
■ the other hand, our natural inclinations will draw us towards pleasure, popularity,
and knowledge
○ Reason #2 to Dismiss: an obvious means (not an end)
■ The above “need” is only for other things, never just to have
Popular Ideas of the Good Life
● Pleasure Seeking: living for physical pleasure (“vulgar masses”)
○ Rationale: two reasons this is a plausible candidate
■ Slavish Tastes: most people only know or only capable of knowing little better
■ High Proüle Cases: those in “high places” share these tastes and sometimes promote them
■ Many pop-culture ügures (athletes, rappers, Kardashians) reýect the message: “I got
IT, I made IT” (where “IT” is “the Good Life”)
○ Reason to Dismiss: Lack of reünement/elevation of character (a fortunate pig can share in the same
lifestyle)
● The Political Life: living for public honors & service
○ Rationale: assures one of merit, of recognition from one’s peers
○ Reason to Dismiss: requires others to secure it, easily taken away
■ Also not really a state of being/doing life, rather an end product
● The Contemplative Life: living to properly understand oneself
Aristotle’s Empirical Approach
- NichomacheanEthics
- Aristotle
The Meaning of Life
❖ What’s the point!?!
❖ Seriously….what’s the point?
➢ Why struggle? Why work? Why learn? Why do all of it at all?
❖ The Ancient Greek Approach: Global Questions
➢ How should we live?
■ global approach to living, to being in the world
➢ Modern Moral Philosophy’s Q: How should we act?
■ local approach to individuated acts, to doing the right thing
➢ Ancient Moral Philosophy’s Answer to “How should we live?”
■ Happily!
■ Eudaimonia: the Greek term for “well being” or “living well”
❖ Quick Contrast with J.S. Mill
➢ Being “well-developed” is a means to the end of greater pleasure
➢ Being “well-developed” is not an end in itself
The Good Life
● Happy vs. Happiness
○ Not a transient state of how one is at the moment
○ Not a ýeeting feeling-based quality
○ Happiness is a state of life, of doing life well, ýourishing, or prospering in the fullest
● Epistemology of Happiness
○ Contemporary Solipsism:
■ Only you can tell if you’re happy…
■ Because only you can reliably report on your inner feelings
○ Greek Approach:
■ Happiness is not an exclusively internal state
■ Happiness has objective qualities
■ Thus, happiness (in general) can be known…if we know its features
● How does one know what “living well” is?
○ studyit. (note: the Greeks were not afraid to seek answers)
○ How do we do that?
What is <Living Well=…exactly?
● Preparing the Answer the Question
(What does it mean to live “the Good Life?”)
○ Identifying the Normative Elements of the Question
■ Goodness comes in diûerent forms, so clarify what sort of “good”
○ Standards must be reasoned
■ Need assurance that what guides the inquiry is rational (objective)
○ Value of the Inquiry
■ Personal investment in knowing rather than justifying preconception
● Means/End: types of goods
○ Means: things valued for the ability to assist one in getting something else that is valued
■ Instrumental Value (derived value): the tools to get valuable things
, ○ Ends: things that re valued in themselves, for their own qualities, regardless of whether they lead to
anything else
■ Intrinsic Value: the source/producers of value
The Good
● The Good: “…that which all things aim”
○ What is good guides all conduct
○ What is truly good is desired/sought only for itself
● Three Prerequisites For Understanding Happiness
○ Knowledge of Happiness Must Be of Practical Beneüt
■ Aristotle’s “worldly” bent vs. Plato’s Forms
■ Knowledge itself derives value (at least in ethics) from facilitating conduct (cf. the Carpenter
& the Geometer)
○ Proper Conception of Happiness Must Be TheGood
■ All good things are desired for the sake of living well
■ Though there are other things desired as ends, they are sometimes desired for the sake of
living well
■ This is not true of happiness, it is unique
○ Life Lived Happily Must Be Enough
■ Whatever happiness is, it should be self-suþcient to give a positive estimation of our lives
■ Parsimony: we should be able to make our way w/o the unnecessary
Popular Ideas of the Good Life
● The Diversity of Happiness (a vague and fuzzy notion)
○ Diûerent strokes for diûerent folks
○ What is happiness to you?
● Money Making: living to make money
○ Summarily dismissed as a confused notion of the good life
○ Reason #1 to Dismiss: compulsion alone makes us value this goal
■ Incidental/artiücial social constructions require money
■ Forced by this need, we view “making money” as a worthwhile goal
■ Not-natural (i.e. not a natural inclination nor a natural drive)
■ a child would be found on a playground thinking of ways to make money…
■ the other hand, our natural inclinations will draw us towards pleasure, popularity,
and knowledge
○ Reason #2 to Dismiss: an obvious means (not an end)
■ The above “need” is only for other things, never just to have
Popular Ideas of the Good Life
● Pleasure Seeking: living for physical pleasure (“vulgar masses”)
○ Rationale: two reasons this is a plausible candidate
■ Slavish Tastes: most people only know or only capable of knowing little better
■ High Proüle Cases: those in “high places” share these tastes and sometimes promote them
■ Many pop-culture ügures (athletes, rappers, Kardashians) reýect the message: “I got
IT, I made IT” (where “IT” is “the Good Life”)
○ Reason to Dismiss: Lack of reünement/elevation of character (a fortunate pig can share in the same
lifestyle)
● The Political Life: living for public honors & service
○ Rationale: assures one of merit, of recognition from one’s peers
○ Reason to Dismiss: requires others to secure it, easily taken away
■ Also not really a state of being/doing life, rather an end product
● The Contemplative Life: living to properly understand oneself
Aristotle’s Empirical Approach
