Nicómaco Ethics: Key Affairs
Introduction
Before dealing with the key issues of the work ‘Ethics to Nicómaco’, I think it is important to mention some things about the author, a philosopher belonging to the famous Trinity created between Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. With him, Western systematic philosophy is born, and the first philosopher who does not write theatrically, but in the form of an essay. He was never a citizen of Athens, however, he came from northern Greece. His father was a doctor, then his learning began in the fields of biology and zoology.
Developing
Aristotle respects Plato a lot, but more powerful is his desire to get the truth than to follow his teacher. Aristotle like Plato, thinks that the city should be governed in the light of the idea of good, but Aristotle argues that with Plato one cannot access the knowledge of what good is, so the practice of the good city is not available forus below on earth.
According to Plato, the philosopher must come out the ‘cave’ and see the light of good to bring it down again and apply it to the polis, but this is an idealistic thought. Aristotle says there is no way to climb out of this cave, therefore he, unlike Plato, is a pragmatist. For Plato, politics is based on the unit.
For Aristotle, politics is not based on unity, but on diversity in a community. Unlike Plato, Aristotle is right that it is impossible to achieve happiness if happiness is not within us, because according to Plato, happiness is an idea that is outside our bodies. His theology is based on the idea that everything is oriented towards something, that is, everything is oriented towards an end.
For him, politics and ethics were discussed the two of the same issues. Aristotle states that man is naturally a political animal. We must update our moral and intellectual skills that we have by nature, and our moral skills cannot be updated outside the social context of a polis. We are the type of animal that is naturally designed to live together in a community, in a polis.
He enters a debate that was previously raised by the sophists who said that there was a big difference between nature and culture (custom and laws). According to them, humans are better attended if we follow nature and not culture. Aristotle thinks that there is not this great division between nature and culture.
We are naturally designed to live in cultures, so this dichotomy is a false dichotomy. The polis has two natural origins that are two natural pairs of human relations;The relationship between man and woman with the purpose of procreating, and the relationship between master and slave with the purpose of preserving each other.
Aristotle divides polis into three types of constitutions;Monarchy, aristocracy, and government. Its forms in corrupt mode are;tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Corruption occurs when wealth becomes more the search than virtue. Wealth should only be used as the means for an end, which should always be virtue.
Democracy becomes bad when the people, that is, the mass of common people, govern, instead of laws. In the political governorate, it is essential that everything is made to the interest of those who are governed, not the one who governs. Democracy, oligarchy, and democracy are all constitutions that work at the interest of the dominant groups, whether the poor, the rich, or the tyrant.
Virtue is the only thing that can work for the common interest of all of us. Aristotle admits that if there were a supremely virtuous person, or a group of supremely virtuous people, they could govern instead of laws, but this is not possible. This is why we must use a government. The good of the individual is the same as the good of the city, so there can be no individual happiness without the happiness of the polis. He thinks that the best laws are those that approximate the natural, but for him the natural does not mean instincts and impulses, but the things that can only be in a way.
Ethics to Nicómaco consists of ten originally separated books and are based on the speeches that Aristotle gave in his high school. The theme of his work is a previously explored Socratic question in Plato’s works, about the way in which man must live. He says that all goods have something in common;The fact that all are ends, but not all purposes look for themselves, only happiness seeks itself.
conclusion
For this reason, Eudemony, according to Aristotle, is the supreme good of the human being, and one cannot be happy living in a selfish way, because having peace with oneself makes peace with others. He first seeks what is typical of the human being and not other beings, and finds that we have the basic life and sensitive life in common with animals, but the logos is our own.
The supreme good, happiness, then it must be an activity of the soul. Man is not good before acting, so virtues are not natural. Practicing excellence in what is typical of one, you learn to be virtuous, and what is own to the human being is the logos. Aristotle separates the soul into three parts;the vegetative, the appetitive part, and that of reason. The vegetative part is related to bodily needs, such as hunger, sleep, and thirst. The appetitive part is the irrational part of the soul, but can obey reason. Aristotle explains how soul parts relate to virtues.
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