Aristotle's PHL A11 Introduction to Ethics - PDF

PHL A11 Introduction to Ethics September 12 Aristotle Aristotle An ancient Greek philosopher whose ethical theory is about living in moderation, acting in accordance with virtue, and enjoying the company of friends. 2 ● Meet Aristotle Lecture plan ● Idea 1: the chief good ● Idea 2: the doctr...

PHL A11 Introduction to Ethics September 12 Aristotle Aristotle An ancient Greek philosopher whose ethical theory is about living in moderation, acting in accordance with virtue, and enjoying the company of friends. 2 ● Meet Aristotle Lecture plan ● Idea 1: the chief good ● Idea 2: the doctrine of the mean 3 ● Recap of ideas 1 and 2 On Thursday… ● Idea 3: why we need friendship 4 ● Aristotle lived from 384–322 BC in Greece. ● From ages 18 to 37, he studied at Plato’s Academy in Athens. Plato was a student of Socrates, a philosopher who was sentenced to death for “impiety” and “corrupting the youth.” ● Aristotle was a private tutor of Alexander the Great. ● Aristotle wrote on everything: ethics, politics, physics, biology, psychology, logic, art, literature… you name it! ● His ideas had an enormous influence on Western civilization. Medieval Islamic scholars called him “The First Teacher,” while Medieval Christian scholars just called him “The Philosopher.” 5 Here’s Raphael’s “School of Athens” (painted around 1510), showing Aristotle (in the centre, dressed in blue) in conversation with Plato. 6 Reading Aristotle is hard! ● He lived more than two millennia ago, so his expressions and ways of thinking will sometimes seem very strange to us. ● We’re reading a translation, and the English words that translators choose don’t always map on perfectly to the ideas that Aristotle expresses in Greek. ● The surviving works of Aristotle were never intended for publication: they are believed to be his lecture notes, or perhaps notes taken by his students! Other ancient writers talk about Aristotle’s beautifully written texts, but those have all been lost. 7 Aristotle’s big idea 1: The chief good 8 The chief good: Aristotle’s chain of reasoning Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics begins with a chain of reasoning about the “chief good” of human life. The reasoning goes roughly like this: ➔ Every skill or activity aims at some “good” or “end.” ➔ There must be a “chief good,” a “complete” and “self-sufficient” end that everything we do ultimately aims at. ➔ People think happiness is the chief good, but they disagree about what happiness is. ➔ We can work out what happiness is by thinking about what is “characteristic” of humans—what makes us different from plants and other animals. ➔ The “characteristic activity” of humans is an “activity of the soul in accordance with reason.” ➔ So, our chief good is living “in accordance with reason,” or with “appropriate virtue.” 9 Here’s how the argument starts: Aristotle begins by saying that every skill or activity or “science” has an “end” or “aim[s] at some good” (3). He uses various examples to make this point: medicine aims at health, shipbuilding aims at creating a ship, “military science” aims at victory. He reasons: there must be a “chief good” (10) that explains the value or point of all those other ends. This is the end of the “master science” of living well (3). So, what is that chief good? 10 That chief good is happiness, according to Aristotle, because… ● Happiness is complete: “we always choose it for itself and never for the sake of anything else” (11). Happiness is not just a means to another end: it is the aim of all pursuits. ○ ● In contrast, we always want other things—whether that’s money, status, fame, or friendship—for the sake of happiness. Happiness is self-sufficient: “on its own [it] makes life worthy of choice and lacking in nothing” (11). ○ Aristotle doesn’t want us to misunderstand him here: humans are “social beings” who need to live with others to be happy. So, the kind of happiness that’s “self-sufficient” for us is a happiness based in friendship, family, and friendly relations with our fellow-citizens. 11 “But perhaps saying that happiness is the chief good sounds rather platitudinous” (11). ➔ A platitude is something often repeated but not very meaningful. Examples in English: “Honesty is the best policy,” “All’s well that ends well.” ➔ We might read Aristotle as as anticipating an objection here, something like: “Of course happiness is what we’re all after! Everyone agrees about that. The real question is what happiness is—and how we need to live to attain it.” Aristotle’s method: to understand what “happiness” is, identity the “characteristic activity” of a human being. What makes the good life for us different from the good life for plants and other animals? 12 Aristotle’s method: to understand what “happiness” is, identity the “characteristic activity” of a human being. What makes the good life for us different from the good life for plants and other animals? The good life for a plant is a “life of nourishment and growth” (12). 13 Aristotle’s method: to understand what “happiness” is, identity the “characteristic activity” of a human being. What makes the good life for us different from the good life for plants and other animals? The good life for an animal is a “sentient life,” a life where having pleasure is good and avoiding pain is bad (12). 14 Aristotle’s method: to understand what “happiness” is, identity the “characteristic activity” of a human being. What makes the good life for us different from the good life for plants and other animals? The good life for a human is more complicated. Humans have reason: we can think, we can use thought and judgment in deciding what to do, and we can judge ourselves for how we act. So, Aristotle concludes, our “characteristic activity,” and thus the basis of our happiness, is living “in accordance with reason,” or with “appropriate virtue” (12). 15 A translation issue… The Greek word that’s translated as “happiness” is eudaimonia. Some scholars think that “flourishing” is a better translation. ● “Happiness” suggests a feeling of pleasure or contentment. But that doesn’t seem to be what Aristotle means: he calls eudaimonia an “activity.” He also says that human happiness is more complex than the “sentient life” of animals—the life of pleasure and pain. ● Aristotle’s idea seems to be that plants, animals, and humans flourish (or “thrive”) in different ways, based on their different capacities (for growth, sentience, reason). 16 For Aristotle, human happiness or flourishing involves using reason—thought, judgment, wisdom—to guide how we live. This is our “chief good.” 17 The chief good: study questions Interpretative questions (about what the author means): What does Aristotle mean when he says that “happiness” is the “chief good” of human life? Why happiness and not status or wealth? How is a good or happy life for humans different, on Aristotle’s view, from a good life for a plant or (non-human) animal? Critical questions (about whether the author makes a good argument): Is Aristotle right that a “happy” life for humans is one lived “in accordance with reason”? Is he right that this makes humans very different from other animals? 18 Want something else to read? Try the entry on “Aristotelian Ethics” in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a very good online resource for philosophy. Section 2, “The Human Good and the Function Argument,” is just five paragraphs but very informative. (Section 5.1 is helpful for the second idea.) This is optional! But if you’re going to read anything else, this is what I recommend. 19 Aristotle’s big idea 2: The doctrine of the mean 20 The doctrine of the mean Aristotle has argued that the chief good of human life is living in accordance with reason or “appropriate virtue.” But what does that mean? Aristotle offers a famous method for thinking about virtue, known as “the doctrine of the mean”: ➔ A virtue is a “mean” or middle between two vices: a vice of excess (too much) and a vice of deficiency (too little). He goes on to use this method to identify a range of virtues and their vices. Some of his examples may strike us as strange, others as familiar. 21 Some of Aristotle’s virtues Vice of deficiency Virtue Vice of excess Cowardliness (being too fearful of danger) Courage (responding to fear with appropriate bravery) Recklessness (being too careless about danger) Stinginess (clinging on to all your money) Generosity (sharing your money in appropriate ways) Vulgarity (being wasteful with your money) Self-deprecation (understating your own abilities) Truthfulness (presenting yourself honestly) Boastfulness (exaggerating your abilities or bragging) 22 Some of Aristotle’s virtues Vice of deficiency Virtue Vice of excess Shyness (feeling shame or embarrassment too easily) Appropriate shame (feeling shame or embarrassment when it’s right to feel this) Shamelessness (not feeling enough shame or embarrassment) Spitefulness (feeling pleasure at others’ suffering or failure) Appropriate indignation (feeling pained when undeserving people succeed, pleased when deserving people succeed) Enviousness (feeling pained when others do well, even when their success is deserved) Being a boor (rude, unpleasant) Being witty (pleasantly amusing to others) Being a clown (a fool, trying to hard) 23 For fans of The Office 24 Two things to notice about Aristotle’s virtues 1. It’s a very mixed list. It’s not just about the things we typically associate with “ethics,” e.g. honesty and fairness. It’s about all the characteristics of a well-balanced person (as understood by Aristotle in his time). It’s about living well in a holistic way, guided by reason (i.e. by a good judgment of the mean between excess and deficiency, in all aspects of life). ➔ Remember: the good life for humans is a life lived in accordance with reason. 25 Two things to notice about Aristotle’s virtues 2. Aristotle doesn’t explain how to recognise the mean for each virtue. He does say that it’s hard to hit the mean consistently: “Missing the target [is] easy, hitting it difficult” (30). He thinks that the “practically wise person”—someone with good reason—can judge where the mean is (31). For Aristotle, virtue can’t be taught in a book. It requires skill and practice (as well as good fortune). The best strategy is to develop good habits. 26 The doctrine of the mean: study questions Interpretative questions (about what the author means): What is Aristotle’s “doctrine of the mean”? Explain with examples. What does Aristotle mean when he says, in his discussion of virtue: “Missing the target [is] easy, hitting it difficult” (30)? How does this second big idea (the doctrine of the mean) connect back to Aristotle’s first big idea (the chief good)? Critical questions (about whether the author makes a good argument): Do you find it helpful to think of virtues as middle grounds between vices of excess and deficiency”? Can you come up with your own examples of virtues that fit this pattern? Can you think of examples that don’t fit the pattern? 27