Nicomachean Ethics #PHIL320S21

In describing the highest good, Aristotle emphasizes how it differs, not only among man, but within man. In other words, not only does our understanding of the highest good differ from person to person, but it differs depending on the circumstances that impact us. Using the examples that Aristotle uses, an ill man is most likely to consider health as his highest good and a poor man might consider his to be wealth. Despite these earthly desires, man, in many cases, maintains that which it cannot understand as its highest or supreme good. Aristotle designates the pursuit of the highest good as a political science. However, it is not a science in the sense that it can be explained and comprehended in limited, exact terminology. This science investigates how our individual ideas of the highest good, the actions born from those ideas, and the results of those actions come together to form a society with a common, never similar, perceptions of that moral standard. This concept clashes with Plato’s Theory of Form in that it takes into account a variety of interpretations as to why and what the good is as opposed to a limited definition of what is good, under which all good things are good in the same or a similar way. From a slightly more progressive perspective, the supreme good reflects the actions that result from virtuous habits. According to Aristotle, the happiness that we reap from living virtuously can even have effects after we are dead. Greek philosophy on happiness describes it as an act more so than a state. It comes from a consistent focus on fulfilling endeavors, guided by virtue. This is consistent with the idea that our happiness is a collection of the entirety of our lives, not just individual moments.