CAS PH 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Nicomachean Ethics
24 Jul 2018
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Lecture 9: Introduction to Aristotle
Lecture 9 Part 1:
• Aristotle’s main aim is to understand what the best life available to human beings is; he
focuses on human excellence rather than what is the right thing to do.
• Aristotle has a few ideas which he outlines in his book, Nicomachean Ethics:
o According to him, human beings do everything for the sake of some good - these
goods can be referred to as “ends” or “goals”.
▪ Human action is teleological (it is purposive, has a final end or goal).
o “Human goods form a hierarchical sequence” (99) - these goods are steps on an
ascending ladder of means and ends.
▪ An action is performed in order to meet the first end (the first goal). When the
end is met, this end now becomes means to the next end.
o This sequence of means-ends must end at some point.
▪ If this process went on forever, then it would be pointless because we never
really have a highest end, the final goal we want to achieve.
▪ Without the highest end, our life seems meaningless.
▪ If the sequence is finite, however, it gives our lives meaning because we work
to fulfil the highest good - we have the motivation to reach the highest possible
peak.
