Hi, everyone.

So, the first theories we're going to discuss under Module 2 is Aristotle and his concept of
human nature. So, what are some points for reflection as we go along in our discussion today? First, ask
yourself, what are your goals in life? What and how do you imagine what a good life is? Are your goals
aligned with how you imagine what your life should be or ought to be? Next, ask yourself, Am I happy?
What does it even mean to be happy? And lastly, does it matter if I am good? Why is it sometimes evil
people fare better in life? The last one, by the way, is a classic platonic question that you can find in The
Republic. Before we proceed further, let's talk a little about his life. Aristotle lived during 384 to 322 B. C.
E, he is from Macedonia, and his father is a physician to King Philip, who later asked him to go back and
tutor his son, Alexander the Great, whom we know in history have conquered the east even down to
India. This was only after spending 20 years being a student to Plato. We will discuss later what are
some allusions to his teacher, Plato, that we can find in his work.

So, after Alexander's death, when members of his court were being killed and hunted, Aristotle was
sentenced to death for impiety, believing in introducing new gods, which, as you must know, was the
same charge that caused the death of So many communities. So, Aristotle fled and lived a long life. He
put up a school called Lyceum, got married twice, and had a son, Nicomacos, whom he dedicated his
book on ethics. He is a prolific writer on a wide range of thoughts such as biology, metaphysics, physics,
politics, and of course, pertinent to our discussion is ethics. So here is a picture. This one is the Academy
painted by Raphael. So, this depicts the of the Athena society where you can find mathematicians,
poets, philosophers coming together. And I wanted to focus the symmetry of this picture in the middle.
Here on the left, you can find Plato, and he is pointing upwards. So, he is referring to the world of ideas,
which is out of our realm. And on the other side, we have Plato who is pointing downwards, which
means he was referring that it shouldn't be about the world of ideas. It should be about the world of
matter, where form and matter are one in the same.

So, in Aristotle, we ask what does it mean to live well? If everything aims at some good, what is good
and how do I become that? So, this is the whole premise of his book, Nikomuken Ethics. It asks about
our character and what we ought to do. Ethics is a study of how best to live. In the opening sentence of
his book, he presented a strong thesis which says, every art and every inquiry and likewise every act and
purpose seems to aim at some good. And so, it has been well said that good is that which everything is
aimed. Let's try to unpack this statement. First, we have to understand Aristotle's teleology from the
Greek word talos, which means end or purpose. So, backtrack a little to a metaphysics of four causes. I'll
do this very quickly. Materials cost, formal cost, efficient cost, and final cost. So that's four. Materials,
formal, efficient, and final cost. So, I have here an example. It's a leather cord. It's a cord holder. So, the
material cost asks about which thing is made of. So definitely it's leather. Formal cost that which thing is
turned into it turned into leather cord holder.

Who costs the change? What and who is efficient cost? Say, for example, the artisan who made this is
named Bridget. So, Bridget is the efficient cause and final cost for what purpose? A chord holder. So, I
can have something to organize my wires and cords together. So, this is related to Entelechy or this goal-
oriented mechanism of self-actualization. So, we are not just mere potentials, we are beings. And the
same way that a caterpillar's actuality is the butterfly. The caterpillar loses itself in this metamorphosis,
this incubation and the solution of the self to emerge into its being. But what about human beings? We
are in between the Gods and the Beast. What is the function of man? Some are contesting the word
function in Aristotle is widely instrumental. When he uses the word function or ergon in Greek, he
means an activity. If everything in life, if every object has a function, what about the human function or
the human good? The purpose of the Nicomachean ethics is to discover the human good, that at which
we ought to aim in life and action. Aristotle tells us that everyone calls it as eudaimonia, happiness,
flourishing, wellbeing, but that people disagree about what it consists in.

Aristotle suggests that we might arrive at a clearer conception of happiness if we could first ascertain
the are-gone or function of a human being. The justification of this line of inquiry is that for all things
that have a function or activity, the good and the well is thought to reside in the function. The compact
argument that follows establishes that the human function is an active life of the element that has a
rational principle. The human good, therefore, is the activity of the rational part of the soul performed
well, which is to say, in accordance with virtue. Side note, before we proceed and you're reading, you
might have encountered comments on how sexist, classist, and ableist, Aristotle is. So that's all true. But
can we still save some of these ideas? So, a point of question when we are reading classic literature,
should we dismiss classic works because of its bias or we understand them in the historical context? So,
remember, in Aristotle's time, slavery was justified. Remember the relationship, master and slave. And
also, women are not treated as citizens. They're not citizens at all because according to Aristotle, they
do not have soul or part of their soul is missing.

So how do we reconcile that? So, to proceed, virtue, areate is excellence in terms of human action. And
virtues are character traits such as honesty, humility, courage, and generosity. So virtual theorists
believe that if we concentrate on being righteous people, the right actions will follow. In other words,
the people with the right character tends to make the right decisions. Virtual ethics can be broken down
into two parts: eudemonia, the highest good a human can achieve, and the actual virtual reality which
we can attain, eudemonia. He believed that the key to happiness is the practice of virtue because virtue
is in accord with human reason. Aristotle stated that we can reach minor state of happiness through
money, power and fame. But eudemonia, ultimate happiness can only be reached through practice of
virtue. So, there are two kinds of virtues that he recognizes: moral and intellectual. He believed that if
he only had one and not the other, then we would not be capable of true virtue and therefore would
never achieve the Eudaimonia. He also says that while we are all born with the capacity to be virtuous,
being virtuous is a skill that we need to learn and practice to be good at.

For example, being a good carpenter is just the same as successfully performing the functions in which
being a good carpenter entail. Similarly, to be a good human is the same thing as effectively performing
the functions in which being a human, being a good human consists. Aristotle said that humans have a
rational soul. The use of reason functions as a central principle of human action. Hence, he believed that
being a good human, living a life of eudaimonia, consists in engaging in rational activity. Aristotle
reasoned out set of virtues that will help a moral agent to be a successful member of society and would
bring the eudaimonia. In other words, there are two ways in which humans might go wrong. There is
always the vice of excess, Kalabisaan, and the vice of deficiency, Kakulangan. Therefore, virtue is the
main point between these two vices. This is a doctrine of the mean and this is a moving target. And not
fixed. This is why, in Aristotle, part of what makes our character is our mistakes and struggles and virtue
and failures, because this is where we can figure out where we went wrong. Thus, this golden mean is
experimental, contextual, and situational.

So, as we engage in life, we will be tested time and time again. For instance, Aristotle gives us example
of the virtue of courage. Courage, Kaduwagan, feeling too much fear is the vice of deficiency, and
rashness, feeling too little fear is the vice of excess. So, courage is the golden meme because the
virtuous person is that one that is both appropriately afraid and yet also appropriately brave. So, in the
fourth line, you can also see modesty as a demean, while deficiency is humility. And I think Aristotle
here means humility because humility is a virtue, but false humility. And of course, the X says is
arrogance or pride. So moral virtues can be cultivated through habit and practice. So, if you can recall
our first discussion in the class about habits and routines, he stated, and I quote, we become just by
performing just acts, temperate by performing temperate acts, and brave by performing brave acts. End
of quote. What Aristotle means by this is that by repeating our behaviors until it becomes a habit, we
form the basis of our morality. Our disposition is to do the right thing as we perceive it. Of course, it also
matters to talk about the soul, something that he inherits from Plato, the concept of the tripartite soul.

So, the appetitive part, the spirited part, and then the rational part. In Plato, the appetitive caters to the
artisans and they need to foster the value of temperance or moderation, while spirited would need to
foster courage and this refers to soldiers. And then, of course, the philosopher king, it needs to foster
the value of wisdom. And all these things coming together, it's called justice or the harmony of all these
virtues. You have a just man and it reflects in the society a just society. In Aristotle, on the other hand,
he divided into two parts. We have the rational and the irrational. So, remember, in Aristotle, he
describes us humans as irrational animals. Our marker is our rationality. In the illustration, the
nutritional and competitive, which nourishes and satisfies us something we share with plants and
animals, belong to the irrational part. While, the liberative reason, the part of our soul that caters to
practical wisdom, how we interrogate, choose, navigate life, belongs to the irrational part. By the way,
here in Ateneo, we are being taught to do mages, more, excellence, areate. Now, the opposite side of
that is satisfied. So, sates and magis.

So, moving forward. So, the other kinds of virtue that we need to foster is intellectual virtue. So, this
talks about the theoretical knowledge and pure reason, which we do not have access to, but only
glimpses like say, for example, in mathematics. So, this is our closest example, closest experience of
God. Thus, the author contends that human life is Homo philosophical, philosophical wisdom. But
contrary to our image of a philosopher who is navel-gazing, he's just simply looking at yourself, only
concerned about his thoughts or pure contemplation, we are urged to engage in life to be here to live.
So contemplative and actual. Contemplation and action. So, in some living a good life, according to
Aristotle, is to live in accordance with virtue. Virtue is both intellectual, which is divided into theoretical
wisdom and practical wisdom, or access to pure reason through contemplation, and there is practical
wisdom or deliberative reason, which is concerned by our decisions and choices. And lastly, of course,
you have moral virtue, which is marked by moderate or mean, choosing between excess and deficiency.
Lastly, remember, central to character-building is choice. This is the basis of human freedom, not only
about freedom to choose, but the quality of choices that we have.
So, you will face obstacles in life and your choices make you who you are. How do we go about our days
between choosing to read your assignment or watching another episode on Netflix? So, which do you
choose? Between some goods, some other goods cause stronger. So, every time you make a choice, it
leaves a mark in your soul. Character comes from the Greek word, kareson, which means deep in us,
engraved, tattooed in our being. People who fail and start again the next day, those people become
good. Not only good, but happy, which we want more than anything else. This is not just feeling good or
toxic positivity that we know more than pleasure, but speaks about our character and this possession. It
takes skills. It takes practice. It takes showing up to life. It takes showing up to live. So, when you know
something and you know how to do it well, not only how to be good, but how to be happy. So, we have
come full circle in the teleology of Aristotle. kahulugan there is purpose, there is meaning, and there is
an end to our activities. So, thank you, everyone, for listening to our discussion this morning.