MHS -2012
Aristotles Ethics
VCE PHILOSOPHY, Unit 3, Area of Study 1
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
0.1 BACKGROUND 384 322 BCE Pupil of Plato @ The Academy (18-37yrs old); teacher of Alex the Great in hometown Macedonia; returned to found Lyceum Biologist (empiricist) Peripatetic The Author in Scholasticism Nicomachean Ethics are lecture notes named after Aristotles son
MHS -2012
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.1 Every art, inquiry, action, and pursuit aim at some good The good, then, is that which all things aim circular? some ends are activities, some products of products, the product is regarded better than the activity there are many ends, but categories also, which have master arts that are to be preferred
MHS -2012
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.2 If there is a chief good, such that our efforts arent vainly innite, it would be advantageous to know what it is archery analogy In terms of the sciences, politics is the master art, for politics: governs the study of all other sciences explicitly has mans best interests in mind and is more god-like in being responsible for many
MHS -2012
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.3
Only as much precision as the subjectmatter admits is to be expected As politics deals with matters and conventions which uctuate, this inquiry is not going to be as rigorous as, say, maths politics is suitable only for the mature, as the immature lack education, experience, and are anyway, led by their passions
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.4 general consent that happiness is the highest good the common think happiness is pleasure, wealth, honour, etc., and are inconsistent according to their circumstances they also tend to believe that which they dont understand [i.e. Plato??] Plato argued that there is a Good higher than any good manifestation cf. Moores naturalistic fallacy
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.4 (cont.) But Plato was at least right in distinguishing between arguing to and from rst principles The former requires we reect on what we know in our own circumstances which is another reason why the audience must be well-bred if they are to intelligently contribute and judge
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.5
The common regard pleasure to constitute the good life 3 types of life: hedonistic; politic; contemplative Hedonistic life is slavish in its tastes by blindly copying beasts and some wealthy
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.5 (cont.)
Political life is more rened and eminent, and identies honour with happiness Too supercial to be a nal good, as we want honour for being virtuous, not virtue for the sake of honour But virtue too is problematic to be the end of the political life, as one can be virtuous when asleep, inactive, suffering misfortunes, which no one will call good the contemplative life will be put off til later money-making is only undertaken under compulsion, and is only good for buying stuff
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.7 Each art and activity has different chief ends The nal end is that at which all chief ends aim If there are many nal, were interested in the most nal Happiness looks like it, for this we choose always for itself and never for the sake of something else Honour, pleasure, reason, and other virtues are sought for themselves but also for happiness
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.7 (cont.)
Happiness is also self-sufcient (unlike honour) self-sufciency in terms of solitariness is a negative, however, since man if born for citizenship happiness neednt be added to [like a masterpiece] Still platitudinous Consider the function of a man
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.7 (cont.)
Consider the function of a man: life (nutrition and growth) is shared with plants and animals perception shared with animals the life of the rational element (in the active sense) in accordance to a rational principle is unique
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.7 (cont.)
like the lyre-player and the good lyre-player, the function of the good man is the good and noble performance of activities and actions of the soul that imply a rational principle Happiness is excellence Over a whole life: One swallow does not make a summer Summary
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.8 Evaluate our conclusion in light of others views 3 classes of goods: external (world); body; soul The soul is taken to be the most pertinent to the good, and physical actions and activities we are in agreement with philosophers Also agree that the end is identied with actions and activities, for it relates to the soul and not external goods Agrees that the happy man lives and fares well
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.8 (cont.) Of the many views of what happiness consists in, they cant be ALL wrong Of those who think its virtue, it must be active virtue, for passive virtue can exist while asleep Got to be in it to win it The good life is also pleasant, for the lover of virtue will nd virtue pleasant, as the lover of horses nd horses pleasant Most pleasures conict, but noble pleasures are by nature pleasant, therefore pleasure will not be sought for itself, but is a by-product
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.8 (cont.) Must enjoy virtue to be called virtuous and virtue is the most (stable) pleasurable Happiness then is the best, noblest, and most pleasant thing in the world... Happiness needs external goods friends, riches, political power, good birth, goodly children, beauty, prosperity
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.9 Is happiness learnt or habituated? If God gives gifts, then it would be happiness cause it the best Either way, happiness is the most godlike, because if He did give gifts, this would be what he would give If a person has potential, then happiness may be won by study and care; but its better if one just has it naturally dodgy to think its up to chance
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk1.9 (cont.) Of the other factors, some necessarily preexist as a condition of happiness (noble birth, looks, etc.) and some are cooperative and instrumental (money, inuence, etc.) This is in keeping with political sciences aims to make/enable citizens of a certain character Animals and children arent happy we talk of children as happy only insofar as they have potential to become happy But for a proper judgement, a whole life must be considered, for bad times may ensue
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.1 There are 2 types of virtue: intellectual & moral Intellectual virtue comes by teaching & experience Moral virtue comes by habit etymological argument N.B. suggests different reading of virtue; (c.f. Romulus, My Father) Therefore none of the moral virtues arise by nature, for nature is unchangable e.g. the stone cannot be trained to fall up We are adapted by nature to receive [moral virtues (for better or worse)] and [these] are made perfect by habit.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.1 (cont.) Of natural capacities, we rst have the potential, then exercise it e.g. we have the sense of seeing before it is utilised) Moral virtue does not exist before it is exercised (cf. Matt 7:16) builders, build; lyre-players play lyres; temperate people act temperately; the brave act bravely. case holds with states, also: good legislation & constitution fosters good citizens (cf. Weil)
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.1 (cont.) As being a good or bad lyre-player or builder comes about by playing the lyre or building, respectively, so too with the virtues e.g. by our transactions with other men [do] we become just or unjust. So too with appetites and temperaments This is why good habits must be formed from youth.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.2 Virtuous acts cannot be prescribed exactly depends on circumstances and individuals each individual must therefore judge for themselves That said, excess or defect destroys e.g. exercise and food So too with the virtues. Cowardice is the defect; Courage the mean; Rashness the excess. Insensibility the defect; temperance the mean; Boorish indulgence the excess.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.2 (cont.)
Just as the right amount of excerise makes one strong... it is by abstaining from pleasures that we become temperate and by being habituated to despise things that are fearful and to stand our ground against them that we become brave
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.3 The pleasure or pain felt when performing an action of a certain character indicates whether the agent themselves is of the same or contrary character. this is why punishment is inicted by means of pleasures and pain, also. It is by pursuing or shunning certain pleasures and pains that one becomes good or bad people speak misguidedly about such matters in absolutes terms
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.3 (cont.) This kind of excellence does what is best with regard to pleasures and pains 3 objects of choice/avoidance, respectively: noble/base; advantageous/injurious; pleasant/painful
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.3 (cont.)
Pleasure applies to all 6 objects, and is common with the animals, and is with us from infancy, and so is especially signicant to leading people right or astray, and is difcult to change It is harder to ght pleasure, and the good is better if it is harder, which is why politics and ethics is focussed on pleasures
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.4 Apparent difculty in saying people become just by acting justly, for surely they are already just who act so? c.f. grammarians and musicians Its [theoretically] possible to say something grammatical, without saying it grammatically; that is, by following the rule, and not just in accordance with the rule. So to, with virtue.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.4 (cont.) 3 conditions of the state of the agent for virtuous action: 1. One must have knowledge; 2. One must choose the act; and; one must choose the act for its own sake. 3. Must arise as a result of character (i.e. habit) #1 is all that is important for the arts; ##2&3 are what is important for virtue.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.4 (cont.) it is not the man who does these that is just and temperate, but the man who also does them as just and temperate men do them. Most people seek refuge in mere theory (i.e. philosophy), without subsequently behaving appropriately like listening attentively to ones doctor, but not following their advice. such hearers of philosophy will not be made well in soul by such a course of philosophy.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.5
What is virtue? The soul consists of 3 things: 1. PASSIONS: feelings that are accompanied by pleasure or pain: e.g. anger, fear, joy, longing, etc. 2. FACULTIES: the capacity to experience passions; and, 3. STATES OF CHARACTER: how well or badly we stand in relation to the passions.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.5 (cont.)
Virtue is not a passion coz we are not praised/blamed for our passions per se, but how and when they arise; also, we cannot choose to experience passionate responses as such, whereas virtue is praised/blamed for the disposition to be moved in a particular way. Virtue is not a faculty, as faculties are by nature, and so we are not praised/blamed for our capacity to have passions. Only option left is character [trilemma]
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.6 Virtue, then, is a state of character which makes a man good and which makes him do his work well cf. excellence of the eye or a horse Virtue as a mean Not a median (intermediate; e.g. half way between 10 and 2) for the median will not be appropriate to all in every circumstance e.g. how much to eat
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.6 (cont.)
Rather virtue is a mean, for it aims at the relative intermediate It is possible to miss the mean in innumerable ways but theres only one way to hit it and so, it is much easier to go wrong than to be good
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.6 (cont.) Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean, i.e. the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that principle by which the man of practical wisdom would determine it. But not every action nor every passion admits of a mean: e.g. spite, shamelessness, and envy, etc.; adultery, theft, and murder, etc. Similarly, there no excess/defect of the mean itself
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.7
Table of virtues and vices.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.8 The mean, the deciency and the excess are all opposed to one another i.e. the brave man appears rash to the coward, and cowardly to the rash Deciency and excess are more opposed to one another than they are to the mean In some cases either one of the vices will be more unlike the mean e.g. rashness is closer to courage than cowardice But also it seems this way coz we are more likely to tend to the vice of cowardice
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
Bk 2.9 Its hard to be good To hit the mean, avoid what is most contrary to it i.e. better to be rash than cowardly Aim for what the opposite vice of whatever vice we nd in ourselves Be wary of pleasures, for they tempt us and cloud our judgement Its hard to reason to what the mean will be Better to land closer to the mean than away from it, but hard to reason whether one will be blamed for deviating either a little or a lot.
Wednesday, 21 March 2012
