PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Nicomachean Ethics
Document Summary
To do well as a human being, we must flourish with our rational principle with respect to reason: intelligent virtue or flourish with our irrational principle called moral virtue. For aristotle, the notion of happiness is an objective notion of happiness; it is not a subjective feeling. Happiness is not feeling good, it is important to take pleasure in what you do but we mustn"t identify this as happiness; it is an objective matter. Happiness can affect you even after your dead. According to aristotle, learning how to act morally is overwhelmingly like learning a language. You find a native speaker who can already speak it. At some point, you no longer are decoding the language, you can naturally react to the language; there"s a transition that occurs and you become proficient. You master the grammar of right and wrong. You need to find someone who is clever and wise in practical moral matters.