Essay On Aristotle's Three Candidates For A Good Life

In order to figure out what characteristics are demonstrated in a happy and good life, Aristotle sorts out characteristics that do not lead to a good life. In chapter 5 of Book 1 in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle rejects three candidates for the good or happiness, which shows the criteria for candidates for good or happiness, and then determines what the candidates of a good life are. To begin, Aristotle considers these characteristics, which are the lives of pleasure, honor, and wealth.

Aristotle considers these lives and after consideration rejects them with a reason why it is not a candidate for the good or happiness. He rejects the pleasurable life with this statement: “Now the mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts (1095b, 19).” To further hone in, Aristotle describes pleasure as something reserved for beasts because following our desires is similar to a beast which makes us no different than lower animals. For a life of honor, Aristotle states that it is “too superficial to be what we are looking for (1095b, 26)” and rejects because honor is dependent on others. This means whether or not you obtain a life of honor is up to the others

which also includes that they can also take it away just as easily. The third life, a life of wealth, Aristotle describes is not the good that people seek, “for it is merely useful for the sake of something else (1096a, 6).” Aristotle rejects the life of wealth because not only is it loved because it is used to get something else, they are also not even close to the end of the road to a life of good or happiness. Through Aristotle’s rejections of the lives of pleasure, happiness, and wealth, we are able to deduct what is needed for a candidate for good or happiness.
Through those rejections Aristotle gives us an idea of what the qualities for good or happiness is not like. In this we can be sure that the candidates for the good or happiness is not ones that are fueled by desires, like pleasure, one that is not easily taken away or relied on by others, like honor, and is not a good used to obtain something else, like wealth. In addition to not having those qualities, Aristotle also gives another trait that this good must have, which is that the good must be the final thing that one must be seeking. He elaborates more on this in chapter 7, where he describes in more detail what a good should be.
In chapter 7 of Book 1, he states that goods like medicine and strategy are different than the good that he is looking for, as those goods lead to another good like health and victory. In other words, the chief good, the good for happiness, is something that is “evidently something final (1097a, 27)” and is what Aristotle is seeking. He continues on with saying that happiness is something that is supposed to be held in high standard, and because of that, we must also place any goods that is also meant to be important as something to be chosen for the sake of itself and not for the sake of something else, like wealth does. Aristotle then gives another feature that happiness or the good must have, which is that it must be self-sufficient. Like before, happiness is something that is the final, highest good and must be obtained for itself and not what it can get you, hence being self-sufficient. In addition, the general features that Aristotle thinks is one also include things opposite of the candidates that he rejected, so it must be something that can be obtained by oneself rather than like honor must be obtained through others. It is through this that Aristotle thinks what the general features of happiness or the good is.
In conclusion, Aristotle rejects three candidates of the good or happiness, which are the lives of pleasure, honor, and wealth.

Each candidate has a general flaw, pleasure with a life run by desires, honor, a life that is not controlled by oneself, and wealth, where it is not the final good that one can have. It is through these rejections that Aristotle finds what makes the general features of a candidates for the good or happiness, which are self-sustainment, being the final good, and what the rejected candidates aren’t. For example, this good must not be obtained through other people, but by oneself, and cannot be used to get something greater, like wealth. It is through these general features that Aristotle thinks happiness and the good can be

obtained.