In his ethics he postulated the concept of a "supreme good" which, as human beings we must pursue to find true happiness.
Not the satisfaction of immediate desire nor the sense of individual well being but a state of "human flourishing" !
Notice one has expanded the state from 'self' to the collective human situation, to be 'inclusive'. Plato had described the act, or our understanding of "goodness" to be a matter involving God. In the Aristotelian view, good is an ethical issue and is therefore something we desire and exists 'in this world' without the guiding hand of God.
Every object, including human beings have a function. The acorn falling to the ground has a function to make the next oak tree. In becoming an oak tree it was fulfilling its purpose.
This is true for humans as for every other species. The thing which sets us aside is our capacity to "reason". This ability to reason leads us to two types of virtue, moral and intellectual.
Moral virtues are 'character traits' such as generosity, honesty, patience, friendliness, whilst intellectual virtues consist of foresight and planning plus the ability to consider consequences. Moral virtues are acquired in childhood and are reinforced through repeated use. One becomes honest by being taught honesty.
The intellect is constantly interrogating the moral virtuous side to our character and the path through life is narrow in that it has to tread between, for instance, rashness on the one side and cowardice on the other, or between envy and spitefulness. Life therefore consists of threading oneself through the vices on either side.
Finding this mean centred approach may sound boring like the schoolmarm advice of the headmaster but it is a 'mean centred approach' based on human experience and tempered with the actual characteristic of the particular human being.
Some times it is appropriate to be angry or sometimes rash but it does encompass, doing the right thing, at the right time for which humanity is, in part, famous !
Not the satisfaction of immediate desire nor the sense of individual well being but a state of "human flourishing" !
Notice one has expanded the state from 'self' to the collective human situation, to be 'inclusive'. Plato had described the act, or our understanding of "goodness" to be a matter involving God. In the Aristotelian view, good is an ethical issue and is therefore something we desire and exists 'in this world' without the guiding hand of God.
Every object, including human beings have a function. The acorn falling to the ground has a function to make the next oak tree. In becoming an oak tree it was fulfilling its purpose.
This is true for humans as for every other species. The thing which sets us aside is our capacity to "reason". This ability to reason leads us to two types of virtue, moral and intellectual.
Moral virtues are 'character traits' such as generosity, honesty, patience, friendliness, whilst intellectual virtues consist of foresight and planning plus the ability to consider consequences. Moral virtues are acquired in childhood and are reinforced through repeated use. One becomes honest by being taught honesty.
The intellect is constantly interrogating the moral virtuous side to our character and the path through life is narrow in that it has to tread between, for instance, rashness on the one side and cowardice on the other, or between envy and spitefulness. Life therefore consists of threading oneself through the vices on either side.
Finding this mean centred approach may sound boring like the schoolmarm advice of the headmaster but it is a 'mean centred approach' based on human experience and tempered with the actual characteristic of the particular human being.
Some times it is appropriate to be angry or sometimes rash but it does encompass, doing the right thing, at the right time for which humanity is, in part, famous !
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