Philosophy 152 Philosophy of Human Nature Darwall Fall 1996 Aristotle I,II I Aristotle's basic picture in comparison with Plato's A. Transcendence vs. immanence B. Aristotle's teleological metaphysics For Plato there is a transcendent good, which it is possible to know through reason. For Aristotle, every natural creature has its distinctive good or telos (end). II Nicomachean Ethics. A. Note the beginning paragraph. What is the project? To discover the chief good (the good for human beings). III Why does Aristotle think we must assume that there is a chief good? A. Some things must be good in themselves, otherwise all desire would be "futile and pointless." B. But why must there be one chief good. One thing for the sake of which everything else is desirable, it being desirable just in itself (and making life lacking in no value)? C. Consider A's remark that, like archers, we need the chief good as a target to aim at. Suppose there were several intrinsic goods with no chief good. How would deliberation proceed when we had to choose between or trade these off against each other? i. In deliberating we must assume there is some basis for choice. ii. Aristotle tells us that all choice aims at ends or goods. iii. Therefore, we must assume there is some end or good that can provide a basis for choice between other intrinsic goods. iv. Therefore, we must assume that there is a chief good. IV What is the chief good? Uncontroversial: the chief good is a thriving, flourishing, happy human life. But what does that consist in? A. Main proposals: pleasure, honor, wealth, virtuous activity. B. Notice how Aristotle rules out honor--people care about honor primarily from those they honor, and this shows that they care about merit. C. Pleasure, he argues in Book X is a symptomof the good life, not what makes it good. When we enjoy valuable activities, our enjoyment is itself an aspect of our appreciating their value, not what makes them valuable. D. Wealth is either only instrumentally valuable or, again, treated by us a symptom of merit. V Chapter 7--the "function" argument for Aristotle's claim that the good is virtuous (i.e. excellent distinctively human) activity. 1. Everything that has a function flourishes when it performs its function well. 2. Human beings have a function. 3. Everything has a distinctive function, so the function of human beings must be distinctive of them. 4. What is distinctive about human beings is rational activity--both explicit and implicit. 5. Therefore, the chief good for human beings (their flourishing) must consist in excellence in these distinctively human, rational activities. VI Virtuous activity as involving character and ideals. VII Aristotle's theory of the mean.