1 GRADE 0 1 2 PHIL 1313 ARISTOTLE S ETHICS 3 Reading Response NE 1 1 Nicomachean Ethics I 1 3 pp 1 3 Full Name McKayla Bobbitt Section 10 PART I READING QUESTIONS 1 Why does Aristotle maintain it has been beautifully said that the good is that at which all things aim Actions have a cause and an effect most people want the effect to be good Why perform an action without the desire for a good outcome Even vindictive actions are for the good of oneself Similarly every action and choice 1094a A person s action doesn t have to be good but the outcome they are aiming for is beneficial in some way 2 Why according to Aristotle should we think that there may be something which is the highest good Some goods are lesser to others The highest goods are naturally good therefore not subordinate to anything If something is the highest good then it is good in itself and not merely because it leads to something else Good in itself is considered an intrinsic good good because it leads to something else is an extrinsic good if in other words we do not make all our choices for the sake of something else 1094a20 Highest good would provide oneself with joy and happiness 3 What according to Aristotle is the point of trying to understand our own highest good presuming there is such a thing A person s highest good would be in regards to their happiness The attainment of the good for one man alone to be sure a source of satisfaction 1094b10 A person must understand their highest good and how to achieve that in order to feel contentment Being equipped with the knowledge of yourself your needs and even further how to fulfill those needs allows one to come closer to their highest good 4 Why does Aristotle claim that politics is the science which is concerned with the highest good for man Man is a political animal all his activities involve the cooperation of others Politics traditionally set the framework of such activities Its collapse as in Russia with the end of the Communist system meant the collapse of all the other activities politics examines resents so much variety and irregularity that some people believe that they only exist by convention and not by nature 1094b15 5 What is the significance of Aristotle s asking Would not an awareness of it have great weight in one s life so that like archers who have a target we would be more apt to hit on what is needed If the pursuit of happiness is never pursued for the sake of some other thing then according to Aristotle it is the highest of all goods or a good that is self sufficient That means happiness is 2 an end in itself Take any activity and if we ask what for eventually we will reach happiness as the ultimate goal and then stop So if we understand our highest good we are less likely to stray from the path that leads us there We will be shooting straight at our targets you could say and not misfire into some crisis causing adventure 6 What is Aristotle s point in maintaining that it belongs to an educated person to look for just so much precision in each kind of discourse as the nature of the thing one is concerned with admits For a well schooled man is one who searches for that degree of precision in each kind of study which the nature of the subject at hand admits it is obviously just as foolish to accept arguments of probability from a mathematician as to demand strict demonstrations from an orator 1094b20 To be honest I have no idea 7 Why does Aristotle maintain that it is not appropriate for a young person to be a student of politics All people are good at making decisions about the things they know and which they consider themselves a good critic of those things Therefore good judgment goes along with the way one has been educated a young man is not equipped to be a student of politics for he has no experience in the actions which life demands of him 1095a And of course these are the things about which politics are involved and from which it reasons Young people live in accordance with feeling and following emotional impulse 3 PART II CRITICAL RESPONSE A Type out in its entirety a passage from the reading that you find significant or interesting i e one that you think merits further in class discussion when the subject and the basis of a discussion consist of matters that hold good only as a general rule the conclusions reached must be of the same order The various points that are made must be received in the same spirit For a well schooled man is one who searches for that degree of precision in each kind of study which the nature of the subject at hand admits it is obviously just as foolish to accept arguments of probability from a mathematician as to demand strict demonstrations from an orator 1094b20 B Explain why you think the passage is significant meriting further in class discussion Because I have NO IDEA what this means thus I need further explanation or perhaps a translations C State and clarify at least one question which the passage raises How does the beginning correlate with the latter I feel as though there is no relation between the first part of the passage and the last