ipl-logo

Aristotle: The Ultimate End Goal

929 Words4 Pages

Aristotles starting point is with the highest good. It is the ultimate end goal. The highest human good is always worth pursuing in its own right. It is an activity that is an end in itself. This conception allows him to isolate two features of what he determines the ‘end goal’ or ‘final purpose’. The first, it being the most perfect or most complete good and the second, that it be self sufficient. This end is not a subjective object of desire. It also cannot be assumed that this human good is something which all humans pursue. Rather, it is what we should pursue and as such provides us with a standard that can normatively evaluate the good of human life. The human good is activity of the soul in accordance with [rational] virtue, and if there …show more content…

Intellectual virtues which come from practical and theoretical wisdom. This requires experience and knowing the right way to do the right thing. This is reason in the strict sense. Then there are virtues of character e.g. courage and generosity i.e. moral virtues. and play a crucial role in perfecting our desires and emotions e.g. fear and greed, that we can become victim too.

Justice is said to be the the unity of all the virtues, it emcompasses them all. This means a person cannot really have one virtue in its entirety without having all of the virtues in their entirety. When confronted with virtues that conflict then, it would mean this only a perceived conflict since are ordered in relation to justice as a whole not in parts.

Natural justice is the same in all times and places. Comprised by the laws that order the universe and that order us toward our telos. For human beings, something that is naturally just must be in accordance with right reason. This is only way to reach a natural and happy end. Aristotle admits, it may be difficult to see the existence of this natural justice since governments vary and no perfect regime exists. We know this because we can observe the different definitions of justice that are implied by the laws of different

Open Document