The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast Episode 5: Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics
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Jul 16, 2009 AI Snips
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Episode notes
Function And The Final End
- Aristotle frames the human good as a function analogous to arts and tools, aiming at a final end for human life.
- He identifies that end as happiness achieved through activity in accordance with virtue.
Arete Means Excellence
- Aristotle's Greek term arete means excellence, not moral perfection, linking virtue to doing a function well.
- He moves from tools and organs having functions to claiming humans have a distinct function tied to rational activity.
Pragmatic Method Over Radical Proof
- Aristotle treats many everyday ends as subordinate to a final human end and proceeds pragmatically from common opinion.
- He does not aim to fully justify the final end by abstract proof but to make sense of shared practices and beliefs.