Aristotle on the Good Life and Quality of Life
Abstract
Aristotle thinks1 that there is some good at which all actions aim. There must be some end which is wanted for its own sake, and for the sake of which we want all the other ends (if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else — which involves an infinite regress). This is the summum bonum which it is important to know in order to plan our lives. The science that studies that end is politics (political science)2. This is the the most authoritative and directive science. It makes use of the other sciences and its end, the human good, includes their ends. The good of the community is greater and more perfect than that of the individual, and man is a political animal and needs social community with others, i.e., his individual good is imperfect in itself.
Keywords
Good Life Moral Virtue Good Fortune High Good External GoodPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
- [1]Ackrill, J.: 1973, Aristotle’s Ethics, Faber and Faber, London.Google Scholar
- [2]Ackrill, J.: 1974, ‘Aristotle on Eudaimonia’, in Rorty, A.O. (ed.), Essays on Aristotle’s Ethics, UCP, 1980.Google Scholar
- [3]Aristotle: 1976, The Nicomachean Ethics, transl. by Thomson, J.A.K., rev. by Tredennick, H., introd. and bibl. by Barnes, J., Penguin Books, London.Google Scholar
- [4]Aristotle: 1952, The Eudemian Ethics, transl. by Rackham, H., Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
- [5]Aristotle: 1935, The Magna Moralia, transl. by Armstrong, G.C., Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
- [6]Aristotle: 1935, The Metaphysics, transl. by Tredennick, H., Harvard University Press, Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
- [7]Cooper, J.M.: 1975, Reason and the Human Good in Aristotle, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
- [8]Gonzales, F.J.: 1991, ‘Arisstotle on Pleasure and Perfection’, Phronesis, vol. XXXVI.Google Scholar
- [9]Gosling, J.B.C. and Taylor, C.C.W.: 1982, The Greeks on Pleasure, Clarendon Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- [10]Hardie, W.F.R.: 1968, Aristotle’s Ethical Theory, Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
- [11]Irwin, T.H.: 1988, Aristotle’s First Principles, Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
- [12]Kenny, A.: 1963, Action, Emotion and Will, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
- [13]Kenny, A.: 1992, Aristotle on the Perfect life, Clarendon Press, Oxford.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
- [14]Owen, G.E.L.: 1972, ‘Aristotelian Pleasures’, in Nussbaum, M. (ed.), Logic, Science and Dialectic, Duckworth, London 1986Google Scholar
- [15]Ross, W.D.: 1949, 5. ed., Aristotle, Methuen UP, London.Google Scholar