The History of Philosophy
What is ‘the function of human beings’? Aristotle approaches an answer to this question by analogies. What makes a good flute-player? Skill at playing the flute. A good carpenter? One good at making things from wood. Each is ‘good’ because he performs his particular function, his work (ergon), well. To do his work well is the virtue or excellence (
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a human being can acquire something analogous to a technical skill in knowing how to navigate between the vicious extremes between which the mean is the associated virtue.
A. C. Grayling • The History of Philosophy
So now we must understand the nature of virtue. There are two kinds of virtue, says Aristotle: those of mind, and those of character. The virtues of mind further subdivide into ‘practical wisdom’ and ‘theoretical wisdom’.
A. C. Grayling • The History of Philosophy
Aristotle’s views in practical philosophy, ethics and politics, are much plainer sailing than his metaphysics and psychology. They turn on the idea that the best kind of society is one whose individual members live the best kind of lives.
A. C. Grayling • The History of Philosophy
Virtues of character include courage, temperance and justice.
A. C. Grayling • The History of Philosophy
In the Nicomachean Ethics he begins by noting that every pursuit aims at some good, which means that there are as many different kinds of good as there are pursuits. Such things as boat-building, military strategy and getting rich each requires subordinate goods to be attained – in carpentry, sword-making, starting a business – each of which has it
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This is very similar to the idea of autotelic or intrinsic livingIdentified in flow
There are two ethical treatises bearing Aristotle’s name, the Eudemian Ethics and the Nicomachean Ethics.
A. C. Grayling • The History of Philosophy
Aristotle took it that the fundamental unit of logical interest is the proposition, the ‘what is said’ by an utterance, this ‘what is said’ being either true or false.
A. C. Grayling • The History of Philosophy
‘Virtue makes the goal right, practical wisdom teaches how to reach it,’ Aristotle says, and habits formed in developing character will help to identify the right goals. If we do not have, or do not yet have, the practical wisdom to work out how to reach those goals, we must imitate those who do have such wisdom. And Aristotle concedes that ‘moral
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