Excellence of Character and Understanding as the Good for Humans

In book I of Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle proposes that the good for humans is to have and exercise the excellences of character. Nevertheless in book X he proposes that the highest human good is contemplation as it is akin to Godly behaviour. I will first explain how human good is having and exercising the excellences of character, and second how human good is having the ability to understand. The tension that arises is that first Aristotle gives two answers to the single question 'what is the human good', and second he asserts that contemplation is the better answer as opposed to excellence of character. Aristotle says that the best life for a human is to have and exercise excellence of character, but he undermines this in book X by claiming that understanding is the better good for humans. Therefore, he contradicts himself on what the best life for humans must be. I will propose that Aristotle does not hold that virtues are undermined by contemplation, but that we hope that contemplation is consistent with our virtues. As such, they act together towards human good. I will show that this does not resolve the tension. On behalf of Aristotle I will conclude that we must first understand a question before we apply the parts of our soul on the question to make a decision.

In book I Aristotle claims that the highest good for humans is exercising and having the excellences of character. He first determines that the greatest good is eudaimonia, roughly translated to happiness, it is the only thing we choose for its intrinsic value (1094 a 20). There is no one definition of good, because different goods produce happiness, however all of these goods are good in an of themselves (1094b 20, 1096a 30-35). However of the three most favou...

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...nd slowly moving line, I must first understand the things that are lines, and so on. I first grasp what I am seeing by understanding. I can then apply the emotional and calculative parts of my soul to determine which means I want for some end that promotes eudaimonia. For example Stephen Hawking has a greater understanding of things than I do. So Stephen Hawking's happiness is greater than mine, not only because he has greater understanding, but because he has a greater understanding of things that he can apply his excellence of character on. Therefore the good for humans is to be able to have understanding first, to exercise the activity of study, and so we can exercise and have excellence in character.

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References

Aristotle. "Nicomachean Ethics." Ed. Michael L. Morgan. Classics of Moral and Political Theory. Indianapolis: Hackett Pub., 2011. 255+. Print.