PHL 503 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-3: Nicomachean Ethics
13 Oct 2018
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Document Summary
Every human activity aims at some end that we consider good. Highest ends are end in themselves; subordinate ends may only be means to higher ends. Highest ends (which we pursue for their own sake) must be supremely good. Study of the good is part of political science. Politics concerns itself with securing the highest ends for human life. Not a precise science as what is good for one person may not be good for another. So, we aim at a rough outline of the good. People say the supreme good is happiness, but people disagree over what constitutes happiness. Plato"s theory of forms suggest there is a single form of good and that all good things are good in the same way. Trying to figure out how to be good, not what exactly is good. Happiness is the highest good because we choose happiness as an end sufficient in itself.
