ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

ARISTOTLE
 ARISTOTLE
❑ Aristotle (384-322 B.C) was born in a Greek colony of Stagira in
Macedonia.
❑ Nicomachus, his father, was a student of natural history and an
eminent physician who served under Amnytas II, King of Macedonia,
father to Philip the Great and grandfather to Alexander the Great.
❑ Aristotle studied in Plato’s Academy and is unanimously considered to
be Plato’s greatest student, with some scholars going as far as saying
that he exceeded his mentor both in depth and breadth of
knowledge.
❑ His philosophy was definitely not a mere extension of Plato’s
but may be considered as an attempt to “ground” his master’s
teachings in the world as we know it.
 ARISTOTLE
❑ If Plato was confined to the belief that the good or purpose of the
human person is to be found in another realm (which he called the
world of forms) Aristotle contradicts this by saying that the proper
good of human person is achievable in this world through the
practical cultivation of virtue (arête).
❑ His Nicomachean Ethics is just one of the many books he wrote. This
book is essentially a guide for living well, a handbook for those who
seek to build and cultivate one’s character in the hope of achieving
life’s ultimate goal (telos).
MATTER AND FORM
MATTER
THAT FROM WHICH SOMETHING IS MADE OF

FORM
WHAT MAKES A THING AS IT IS (WHATNESS)
MATTER AND FORM
MATTER
THE MATERIAL COMPONENTS OF A DOG

FORM
WHAT MAKES THE DOG, A DOG (DOGNESS)
 MATTER AND FORM
FORMS TRANSCEND FORMS CAN ONLY
INDIVIDUAL THINGS BE FOUND IN
(WORLD OF FORMS) INDIVIDUAL THINGS

DOGNESS CAN BE FOUND IN DOGNESS CAN BE FOUND IN

THE WORLD OF FORMS THE DOG

PLATO ARISTOTLE
 MATTER AND FORM
GOODNESS CAN BE GOODNESS CAN BE
KNOWN IN THE CULTIVATED IN THE
WORLD OF FORMS WORLD

TO KNOW THE GOOD, IS TO TO KNOW THE GOOD, IS TO

DO THE GOOD ALWAYS DO THE GOOD

PLATO ARISTOTLE
WHAT IS HIS PHILOSOPHY?
 ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS
❑ In one’s journey towards self-realization and self-flourishing, there is
an implied necessity to understand what he is actually aiming for in
his life (Goal/End).
❑ In aiming for a goal, the person must also first understand what he
actually is and is potentially capable of.
❑ Self-actualization is not attained through theory but by practice:
character is a product of practice
❑ Aristotle wrote his Nicomachean Ethics with these questions in mind:
❑ What does it actually mean for a human person to flourish?
❑ What does it mean for one to achieve his goal?
❑ What is the goal of our existence and what do we have to do with it?
 ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS
❑ As one of Plato’s most prolific students, he shares with his teacher the
fundamental assumption that what radically distinguishes the human
person from other forms of being is his possession of reason. For both
of these thinkers, the ultimate purpose cannot be fully understood
without understanding the place of reason in one’s life.
❑ However, if Plato firmly believes that ignorance is solely responsible
for committing immoral acts, thinking that once one truly knows the
good, one will inevitably do the good, Aristotle believes otherwise.
❑ Aristotle considers that morality is not merely a matter of
knowing the good but actually doing or practicing the good
habitually. We become what we are by what we do and not
merely by what we know.
 ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS
❑ For him, we can only fully actualize our potential as human beings
once we understand what being human essentially aims to and do the
necessary things to fulfill our function (ergon) in the most excellent
way possible.
❑ Aristotle is not simply interested in finding out the different ends or
purposes for human life. He wants to find out what all our lives
essentially and ultimately aim to.
❑ For Aristotle, the chief end (Ultimate end) for the human person must
not be something one aims at for the sake of something else, it must
be something one aims at for the sake of itself.

PROXIMATE END ➔ REMOTE END ➔ ULTIMATE END

ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

WHAT IS THE
ULTIMATE END?
ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

HAPPINESS
 ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS

EUDAIMONIA
εὐδαιμονία
 EUDAIMONIA
❑ Aristotle names the chief good for the human person as happiness.
❑ For him, happiness is the self-sufficient (makes human life complete),
final (desired for itself and not for the sake of something else), and
attainable (not a mere theoretical construct but something that one
actually does practically) goal of human life.
“Happiness, above all, seems to be of this character, for we always
choose it on account of itself and never on account of something else.
Yet honor, pleasure, intellect, and every virtue we choose on their own
account but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, because we
suppose that, through them, we will be happy. But nobody chooses
happiness for the sake of these things, or, more generally, on account of
anything else.”
 EUDAIMONIA
❑ Eudaimonia is sought for its own sake. All other ends, such as health,
wealth, and power, are sought because they are perceived to be
instrumental in one’s flourishing.
❑ Eudaimonia, as the proper end of man, is not some kind of inactive
state but is actually something that one does.
❑ For Aristotle, our chief good is not something we merely possess but
something that we continually actualize (in practice).
❑ According to him, the chief good is not achieved by one grand act or
one big decision, for it is something one constantly strives for.
 EUDAIMONIA

WHAT COMPONENT OF MAN ACTUATES

HAPPINESS?
EUDAIMONIA

SOUL
 THE SOUL
❑ Aristotle postulates that happiness is an activity of the soul.
❑ The obvious question is, of course, what he means by “soul.”
❑ For him, the soul is the part of the human being that animates the
body.
❑ Body and soul are inseparable for Aristotle, but he emphasizes the
role of the soul more than that of the body in elucidating his ethics.
 THE SOUL
❑ The soul is composed of both rational and irrational elements. The
rational part of the soul is divided into two parts — the speculative
(responsible for knowledge) and the practical (responsible for choice
and action).
❑ The speculative part is concerned with pure thought and is essentially
the base of contemplation, while the practical intellect is in charge of
action and the practical determination of the proper means to attain a
specific end.
 THE SOUL
❑ The irrational part of the soul also has two parts (the vegetative and
the appetitive). The vegetative part is in charge of the nutrition and
growth of the human being. This part of the soul takes care of all the
involuntary functions of the body, from breathing to digestion and the
like. Aristotle says that this part of the soul is not relevant in
discussing happiness or virtue. Since this is also found in any other
living being, it is not distinct to the human person.
❑ However, the appetitive part shares in the rational element in the
soul. It cannot itself reason, but it does share in the rational element
in that it can be influenced by it.
 THE SOUL
❑ The desiring element of the soul (will), although irrational, can be
reasoned with, so to speak.
❑ Hence, if a person suddenly feels the urge to eat all the food on the
table that is meant for an entire family, it is possible that he stops
himself from doing so since such an act is grossly unfit for a proper
human being. Examined under an Aristotelian lens, this person’s
decision to keep his greed in check is influenced by practical reason
which determines the proper thing to do in a given situation.
 THE SOUL

HOW CAN THE SOUL ACTUATE

HAPPINESS?
THE SOUL

VIRTUE
 THE SOUL

WHAT GOVERNS THE ACTUATION OF

HAPPINESS?
 THE SOUL

PRUDENCE
PRACTICAL WISDOM
 VIRTUE AND PRUDENCE
❑ Virtue is a state of one’s character that is the result of choice.
❑ This choice is governed by prudence or practical wisdom (phronêsis).
❑ Phronêsis is the human person’s instrument in dealing with moral
choices. It is a kind of knowledge that deals with practical matters
and not just with ideas or concepts.
❑ Phronêsis participates in the capacity of the rational part of the soul
to reckon situations without easily giving in to the push and pull of
the various desires which emanate from the appetitive part of the
soul.
 VIRTUE AND PRUDENCE
❑ In other words, practical wisdom aids one in being happy.
❑ It is comprised both of knowledge and action.
❑ One’s capacity for choice and action must be guided by the
intellectual virtue of practical wisdom or phronêsis in pursuit of the
“mean” or the “mesotes” for one to be able to call himself/ herself
morally virtuous.
❑ Practical wisdom guides the human person in choosing the mean
between the extremes of excess and deficiency. It constantly adjusts
its reckoning based on the shifting conditions that permeate a
specific situation, relative to oneself.
VIRTUE AND PRUDENCE
ARISTOTLE’S CONCEPT OF THE GOLDEN MEAN
DEFICIENCY BALANCE EXCESSIVENESS
COWARDICE COURAGE RASHNESS
STINGINESS GENEROSITY EXTRAVAGANCE
SLOTH AMBITION GREED
HUMILITY MODESTY PRIDE
SECRECY HONESTY LOQUACITY
MOROSENESS GOOD HUMOR ABSURDITY
QUARRELSOMENESS FRIENDSHIP FLATTERY
SELF-INDULGENCE TEMPERANCE INSENSIBILITY
APATHY COMPOSURE IRRITABILITY
INDECISIVENESS SELF CONTROL IMPULSIVENESS
 CONCLUSION
❑ What is the Ultimate End of man?
HAPPINESS
❑ What component of man actuates happiness?
THE SOUL (REASON)
❑ How can the soul actuate happiness?
CULTIVATION OF VIRTUE
❑ What governs the actuation of Happiness?
PRUDENCE (PHRONÊSIS)