Aristotle’s Theory of

Virtue and Happiness

(NICOMACHEAN ETHICS)
Educating the mind without
educating the heart is no education
at all.”
 
“Knowing yourself is the beginning
with all wisdom.”

- Aristotle
Outline
I. About the Author
II. Nicomachean Ethics Overview
III. Human Good
IV. Aristotle Theory of Virtue
V. Happiness
VI. Summary
VII. References
About the Author
 ARISTOTLE

(c. 384 B.C. to 322 B.C.)

was an Ancient Greek philosopher
and scientist who is still considered one
of the greatest thinkers in politics,
psychology and ethics.
Aristotle, together with Socrates
and Plato, laid much of the groundwork
for Western Philosophy.
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

 is a collection of lecture notes (10 Books).

 Ethics may be notes that Aristotle wrote or dictated, or

they may be notes taken by someone listening to his
lectures.
 Nicomachus (Aristotle’s son), edited Aristotle works
after his death.
 Eudemian Ethics (8 Books).

 
Aristotle Key Questions:

 “What is the ultimate purpose of human existence?"

 What is that end or goal for which we should direct all of
our activities?
 Everywhere we see people seeking pleasure, wealth, and a
good reputation. But while each of these has some value,
none of them can occupy the place of the chief good for
which humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act
must be self-sufficient and final, "that which is always
desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.“
(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1097a30-34)
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

 Book I: The Human Good

Subject of our Inquiry
All human activities aim at some good: some goods
subordinate to others.
1. Everyart and every inquiry, and similarly every
action and choice, is thought to aim at some
good; and for this reason the has been rightly
declared to be that which all things aim.
(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, 1094a)
 Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue (Areté)
 Human virtues into moral or character-related virtues
 Book 2-4 : Moral Virtues (Temperance, Courage)

- is a state of character, not a passion nor capacity

 Book 5: Justice
 and intellectual or thinking-related virtues
 Book 6: Intellectual Virtue (Scientific Knowledge-chief virtue)
 (Practical Wisdom-knowledge how to secure the ends of human life)
 Human virtues, like the skills in any discipline, are achieved and
developed through practice—that is, by repeating their corresponding
actions (in this case, by repeating virtuous acts).
 Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue
 Habits - development of moral habits in children is important.
 A person will not be able to achieve happiness if he or she has not
developed the proper moral habits during childhood
 People generally will not be able to be virtuous if they have
insufficient material resources or lack friends.
 Good habits are sufficient for children, but adults must also have
practical wisdom, which is the intellectual virtue associated with
knowledge of how to achieve the goals of human life.
 Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue
 Habits - development of moral habits in children is important.
 A person will not be able to achieve happiness if he or she has not
developed the proper moral habits during childhood
 People generally will not be able to be virtuous if they have
insufficient material resources or lack friends.
 Good habits are sufficient for children, but adults must also have
practical wisdom, which is the intellectual virtue associated with
knowledge of how to achieve the goals of human life.
 Aristotle’s Theory of Virtue
 It is practical wisdom that makes it possible for an individual to
determine what is a virtuous act and what are the vices of
excess and of defects associated with the virtue.

 However, just as in medicine there are some actions that are

always against health and therefore wrong, in life there are
some actions that are always against human excellence and
therefore wrong.
Aristotle Happiness (Book 10)
 It is easy enough to see that we desire money, pleasure, and
honor only because we believe that these goods will make us
happy. It seems that all other goods are a means towards
obtaining happiness, while happiness is always an end in itself.
 The highest good of human life is called eudaimonia, which is
usually translated as “happiness” but sometimes as “human
flourishing” or “excellence” to capture the original Greek term’s
reference to a state of living and being and not to a subjective
feeling.
 “for as it is not one swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not
one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy."
(Nicomachean Ethics, 1098a18)
Aristotle Happiness (Book 10)
 Happiness is not something that merely happens. It is stable,
objective, and universal.
 Happiness is stable means that it is not connected to transient
feelings and that it is probably impossible to determine whether
someone has achieved happiness while he or she is living.
 Happiness is objective means that people can be wrong when
they believe that they have achieved happiness
 Happiness is universal means that it is basically the same sort of
thing for all people.
Aristotle Happiness (Book 10)
 Politics is of central importance to Aristotle because humans are,
by nature and not merely by convenience or convention, social
animals (autonomy and individual rights).
 The pursuit of happiness should be viewed as a discipline.
Nicomachean Ethics
 Ethics was more a matter of character than of following
rules. Aristotle was more concerned with what a person was
than what he did.
A person’s character is created by his actions. Yet making
one’s actions conform to rules was not the goal of morality
Example:
 A person can obey all the rules of chess without being a very good
chess player. So too, a person can follow all the rules of morality—
never lie, steal, murder, or commit adultery—without being an
especially good person.
Nicomachean Ethics
 Thegoal of morality, according to Aristotle, is human
happiness.
 Why be moral? (ask philosophers)
 —never arose for Aristotle because he simply assumed that
achieving a stable and lasting happiness was everyone’s goal.
 HAPPIEST: if act according to our essential nature (human being’s
rational and social nature)
 Rational – need and desire for knowledge
 Social – natural need and desire for friends (Book 8-9: Friendship)
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS SUMMARY

 Happiness is the ultimate/highest good, since all other

goods are intermediate while happiness is final. We
pursue other goods to achieve happiness, but happiness
is valuable in itself. ... For Aristotle, the virtuous choice
was the mean between two extremes: excess and defect.
 Ethics with a discussion of the highest form of happiness:
a life of intellectual contemplation. Since reason is what
separates humanity from animals.
http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/aristotle/section8.rhtml
Summary
 The highest good for human beings is happiness, and that
rational choice of life will be directed to one’s own
happiness (eudaimonia). – a continuous process to reach it.
 Only a life which cultivates the traditional virtues (Areté),
Justice, Temperance, Courage and Practical Wisdom, will be a
happy life.
 Golden Mean (with help of Practical Wisdom): to balance
deficit (leads to vices) and excess of virtues.

(Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Introduction)

Summary
3 Kinds of Friendship:
1. Friends for Pleasure
2. Friends for Utility
3. Friends with Virtues that will lead you towards
Happiness
 Analysis:
 How about slaves and women of that time, can they truly
reach happiness with their state of life?
 Compare with Kant’s Good Will vs Aristotle’s Happiness
REFERENCES:
 Aristotle. 350 BC/1994. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by W. D.
Ross.
 "Nicomachean Ethics - Summary" Critical Survey of Literature for
Students Ed. Laurence W. Mazzeno. eNotes.com, Inc. 2010
eNotes.com 8 Dec, 2018
<http://www.enotes.com/topics/nicomachean-ethics#summary-
summary-summary-the-work-1>
 http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-
happiness/aristotle/
 http://www.sparknotes.com/biography/aristotle/section8.rhtml
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have
virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we
repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

- Aristotle