Quotation
Last reviewed:
“The human good turns out to be activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.”
Aristotle · Aristotelianism · Ancient · c. 340 BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that the human good is a life of activity in accordance with virtue, not a mood and not a pile of possessions. A competing reading, which his own Book X encourages, says the best activity is contemplation, so the definition may not spread evenly across a practical civic life. The sentence is the outline definition of eudaimonia in Nicomachean Ethics I.7, which the rest of the work fills in. Pleasure, for him, completes activity rather than replacing it.
Did Aristotle really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Close translation of his definition of eudaimonia in outline. He spends the rest of the Ethics filling in what virtue and activity mean.
Where it comes from
Nicomachean Ethics I.7, 1098a
Approximate date: c. 340 BCE.
How to use it
Judge a hard term at work by what you were able to do well, not only by how often you felt pleased on the commute home. A bright weekend of nothing you respect is not yet the good he names. Pleasure can sit beside the activity, but it is not the scoreboard on its own.
A mindset reading
A bad feeling on a worthwhile day does not by itself mean the day failed. A pleasant day can still be empty of the activity that would make it a human good. The habit is to score the doing, over a stretch of time, rather than the spike.
Understand the philosophy
Aristotle reaches this by asking what the characteristic work of a human being is, and his answer is activity with reason. Eudaimonia, often translated happiness or flourishing, is that activity in accordance with virtue, over a complete life. It answers the question of Book I, what the highest end is. Book X will argue about whether contemplation ranks above the civic virtues.
- happiness
- virtue
- meaning
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that the human good is a life of activity in accordance with virtue, not a mood and not a pile of possessions. A competing reading, which his own Book X encourages, says the best activity is contemplation, so the definition may not spread evenly across a practical civic life. The sentence is the outline definition of eudaimonia in Nicomachean Ethics I.7, which the rest of the work fills in. Pleasure, for him, completes activity rather than replacing it.
Did Aristotle really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Close translation of his definition of eudaimonia in outline. He spends the rest of the Ethics filling in what virtue and activity mean.
Which work is it in?
Nicomachean Ethics I.7, 1098a Approximate date: c. 340 BCE.