The Good Life

Topic: The good life according to Aristotle and selected philosophies

Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and the Good Life

 “Are we living the good life,” necessary reflection must be made on two things :
1. What standard could be used to define “the good life”.
2. How can the standard serve as a guide toward living the good life in the midst of scientific progress as a guide
toward living the good life in the midst of scientific progress and technological advancement?

 In the documentary film, The Magician’s twin: C. S. Lewis and the Case Against Scientism, Lewis postulated that
“science must be guided by some ethical basis that is not dictated by the science itself. One basis is Aristotle’s
Nichomachean Ethics.
 According to Aristotle, an important Greek philosopher:
 “Every art and every kind of inquiry, and likewise every act and purpose, seems to aim at some
good: and so it has been well said that the good is that at which everything aims.”
(Nicomachean Ethics 1:1)

Eudemia: The Ultimate Good

 Everything, according to him is aimed at the good and thus the good may be expressed in different ways. However,
the good life is a different thing. He said that:
 “Since—to resume—all knowledge and all-purpose aims at some good, what is this which we
say is the aim of Politics; or, in other words, what is the highest of all realizable goods?

 Some potential candidates for the ultimate good.

1. Pleasure is the ultimate good.
 One aims for pleasure in the food they eat or in the experiences they immerse themselves into.
 While pleasure is an important human need, it cannot be the ultimate good.
 It is transitory - it passes
 It does not encompass all aspects of life
2. Wealth is a potential candidate for ultimate good
 Many, if not most, aims to be financially stable, to be rich, or to be able to afford a luxurious life
 There are people who have become very wealthy but remain unhappy with the lives they lead.
 In this sense, wealth is just an intermediate good - that is, only instrumental.
 It’s not the ultimate good because it is not self-sufficient and does not stop one from aiming for some other
’greater’ good.
3. Fame and honor is another candidate for the ultimate good.
 Many people nowadays seem to be motivated by a desire to be known - to be famous.
 Others strive for honor and recognition.
 Many people act according to how they think they will be admired and appreciated by other people.
 However, these cannot constitute the ultimate good, simply because they are based on the perception of
others.
 Fame and honor can never be good in themselves.
 If one’s definition of the good life is being popular or respected, then the good life becomes elusive since it
is based on the subjective views of others.
 Unlike pleasure, wealth, fame, and honor, happiness is the ultimate good.
 In the Aristotelian sense, happiness is ”living well and doing well” (Neb1:4)
 This concept is called eudaimonia (eu meaning good and daimon meaning spirit). When taken together, this
means the good life, which is marked by happiness or welfare..
 It is a flourishing life filled with meaningful endeavors that empower the human person to be the best version of
himself/herself.
 “Happiness seems more than anything else to answer to this description: for we always choose
it for itself, and never for the sake of something else; while honor and pleasure and reason,
and all virtue or excellence, we choose partly indeed for themselves (for, apart from any result,
we should choose each of them), but partly also for the sake of happiness, supposing that they
will help to make us happy. But no one chooses happiness for the sake of these things, or as
a means to anything else at all.” (Nicomachean Ethics 1:7)
 According to Aristotle, man’s “form” comprises a soul, which has a plant-like part, an animal part, and a rational
part.
 And now he asks: How should we live? What does it require to live a good life?
 His answer: Man can only achieve happiness by using all his abilities and capabilities or living a life of virtue.
 He proposed two hallmarks of Eudaimonia:
 Virtue
 Excellence
  Thus, happiness in the sense of Eudaimonia has to be distinguished from merely living good.
 Eudaimonia transcends all aspects of life for it is about living well and doing well in whatever one does.
 Virtue is the excellence of character that empowers one to do good and be good. Its opposite is called vice.
 “We reply that it cannot be right thus to follow fortune. For it is not in this that our weal or woe
lies; but, as we said, though good fortune is needed to complete man’s life, yet it is the excellent
employment of his powers that constitutes his happiness, as the reverse of this constitutes his
misery.” (Nicomachean Ethics1:10)
 According to Aristotle, there are two types of virtue: intellectual and moral.
 “Excellence, then, being of these two kinds, intellectual and moral.
 Intellectual excellence owes its birth and growth mainly to instruction, and so requires time
and experience.
 While moral excellence is the result of habit or custom, and has accordingly in our language
received a name formed by a slight change from habit.” (Nicomachean Ethics 2:1)
 Aristotle held that there are three forms of happiness.
1. Happiness is a life of pleasure and enjoyment.
2. Happiness is a life as a free and responsible citizen.
3. Happiness is a life as thinker and philosopher.
 Aristotle then emphasized that all three criteria must be present at the same time for man to find happiness and
fulfillment.
 He rejected all forms of imbalance. Had he lived today he might have said that a person who only develops his
body lives a life that is just as unbalanced as someone who only uses his head. Both extremes are an expression
of a warped way of life.

Eudaimonia: uniquely Human?

 Eudaimonia or happiness is unique to humans for it is a uniquely human function.
 It is achieved only through a rationally directed life.
 Aristotle’s notion on tripartite soul is summarized in the table below.

Table 1. Aristotle’ Tripartite Soul

HUMANS ANIMALS PLANTS

Rational Sensitive Nutritive

(rational) (partly rational) (non-rational)

Theoretical Practical Locomotion Perception Growth Nutrition Reproduction

 On the nutritive degree, all living things, i.e., plants, animals, and humans, require nourishment and have the ability
to reproduce.
 On the sensitive degree, only animals and humans have the ability to move and perceive.
 On the rational degree, only humans are capable of theoretical and practical functions.
 Humans possess the nutritive, sensitive, and rational degrees of the soul.
 Only humans are capable of a life guided by reason.
 Happiness is a uniquely human function for it can only be achieved through a rationally directed life.

Arête and Human Happiness

 Eudaimonia is what defines the good life
 To live a good life is to live a happy life
 For Aristotle, Eudaimonia is only possible by living a life of virtue
 Arête, a Greek term is defined as “excellence of any kind” and can also mean “moral virtue”
 A virtue is what makes one function well.
 He suggested two types of virtue
1. Intellectual virtue
 Or virtue of thought is achieved through education, time, and experience
 Key intellectual virtues are wisdom, which guides ethical behavior, and understanding, which is gained
from scientific endeavors and contemplation.
 Wisdom and understanding are achieved through formal and non-formal means.
 Intellectual virtues are acquired self-thought knowledge and skills as much as those knowledge and skills
taught and learned from formal institutions.
2. Moral virtue
  Or virtue of character is achieved through habitual practice
 Some key moral virtues are generosity, temperance, and courage.
 Aristotle explained that although the capacity for intellectual virtue is innate, it is brought into completion
only by practice.
 It is by repeatedly being unselfish that one develops the virtue of generosity.
 It is by repeatedly resisting and foregoing very inviting opportunity that one develops the virtue of
temperance.
 It is repeatedly exhibiting the proper action and emotional response in the face of danger that one develops
the virtue of courage.
 Moral virtue is like a skill - it can be acquired only through repeated practice.
 Example: playing a guitar, everyone has an innate capacity for intellectual virtue, but not everyone acquires
it because only those who devote time and practice develop the skill of playing the instrument.
 Both intellectual and moral virtue should be in accordance with reason to achieve eudaimonia.
 A virtue is ruined by any excess and deficiency in how one lives and acts.
 A balance between two extremes is a requisite of virtue.

What then is the good life?

 Putting everything in perspective, the good life in the sense of Eudaimonia is the state of being happy, healthy, and
prosperous in the way one thinks, lives, and acts.
 The path to the good life consists of the virtues of thought and character, which are relative mediators between the
two extremes of excess and deficiency.
 In this way, the good life is understood as happiness brought about by living virtuous life.
 We can draw parallels between moving toward the good life and moving further progress and development in
science and technology
 In appraising the goodness of the next medical procedure, the new social media trend, the latest mobile device, or
the upcoming technology for food safety, one must be guided by Aristotelian virtues.
 Science and technology can be ruined by under-or over-appreciation of the scope and function it plays in the pursuit
of the uniquely human experience of happiness.
 Refusing science and technology altogether to improve human life is as problematic as allowing it to entirely dictate
reason and action without any regard for ethical and moral standards.
 By imposing on science and technology and ethical standard that s not dictated by itself, as C. S. Lewis proposed,
not only will scientific advancement and technological development flourish, but also the human person.