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Ancient Philosophers

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The Final Good For Man in Aristotle's Ethical Theory. Happy Life. - Aristotle on the Good Life - Success in Living Section C. The Aristotelian Philosophy on The Good Life. The Final Good For Man in Aristotle's Ethical Theory A Guest Submission by Mark J. Zavodnyik* "The happy life for a man is a life of the conscious following of a rule. " Want a Happy Life? In his work in Ethics and Politics, Aristotle looks at how a person can achieve something that could be considered a "happy life. " What Do You Need? To be able to know or choose the right rule, two types of goodness are required: goodness of character (moral goodness) and goodness of intellect. How do You Distinguish? The next question that one might ask is, what distinguishes right from wrong acts? What Good is Wisdom? The other type of goodness that leads to finding the right rule in life is goodness of intellect. What Should be Your Goal in Life? However here Taylor says that Aristotle throws a curveball.

. * Mark J. Bibliography (Section C) J. Aristotle's Ethics. Bk. X, Chapter 7, 1177a11-1177a18 to Bk. X, Chapter 8, 1178b33-1179a33. Translated by W. D. Ross, revised by J. O. Urmson from The Complete Works Of Aristotle, Jonathan Barnes (ed.), Princeton U. Chapter 7 If happiness is activity in accordance with excellence, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest excellence; and this will be that of the best thing in us.

Now this would seem to be in agreement both with what we said before and with the truth. But such a life would be too high for man; for it is not in so far as he is man that he will live so, but in so far as something divine is present in him; and by so much as this is superior to our composite nature is its activity superior to that which is the exercise of the other kind of excellence. Chapter 8 But in a secondary degree the life in accordance with the other kind of excellence is happy; for the activities in accordance with this befit our human estate. Aristotle and Plato.