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Student’s Name Instructor’s Name Course Date Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics The function of man argument is defined in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. According to this view, to discover the human good, one must identify our function as human beings. The human function is regarded as a rational activity and so is our good, which is done in agreement with virtue. The human good is identified as happiness, and everyone aims to attain it in life. According to Aristotle, it is only possible to arrive at a clear conception of happiness if one first determines the function of a human being. According to the theory, for all things with a function, the good resides in the function (Aristotle. and Ross 1.6 1097b). Aristotle presents the example of a flute player to explain the meaning of function residing within the object. For one to be a flute player, he must know how to play it. The same case applies to happiness in that for one to be happy; happiness must exist inside. Aristotle also argues that every action has a purpose that defines which other actions are done and in what way they are done (1.7 1098a). Medicine is practiced for the purpose of healing while a flute is played for music; every action, therefore, has a purpose. After establishing that every action has a purpose and that this helps in our understanding of the human good, he asked himself whether there was an end in mind for an action taken. He concluded that there was an overall good that all humans sought as their lives would be useless. This goal is referred to as “Eudaimonia.” It is the highest good for all humans and determines what it entails to be a good human being. The eudaimonic
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