Week 5 Response

Imagine that you are playing a game of darts.  It would be fairly easy for you to hit the dart board.  Now imagine that you have been blindfolded and the board has been moved.  Would you even attempt to throw the dart?  Without having a goal or knowing where to aim, is it worth playing the game?  Aristotle understood the importance of teleology, which is “the fact or character attributed to nature or natural processes of being directed toward an end or shaped by a purpose” (Merriam-Webster), to the human life and wrote on it in his work, The Nicomachean Ethics.

It is proposed that the end goal for humanity is a theoretical “supreme good”.  When I read this, I immediately thought of the Law of Moses in the Old Testament of the Bible.  But the next rational question is whether this high standard of good is attainable.  In both the Biblical and ethical cases, I would say that it is not, but instead that it serves as a goal and a standard for our lives.  We can know that this ultimate good is the goal of humanity as “the highest good is clearly something final” (Aristotle 13).  This is teleology in its true form.  The apprehension of this supreme good and understanding of its acquirement.  Aristotle writes that “knowledge of this supreme good is of great importance for the conduct of life… we shall have a better chance of attaining what we want” (Aristotle 2).  And what exactly is it that we as people want?  Why happiness of course.

Happiness is the end goal for people.  We want other things as a means to happiness, but we want happiness for what it actually is.  But what exactly is happiness?  According to Aristotle, “different people give different definitions of it” (Aristotle 5).  As I am writing this, I would say that my definition of happiness is to have rest.  Happiness is not rest, but I want rest as a means to happiness.  Aristotle however, holds to a more sophisticated definition of happiness.  It is a “certain kind of activity of the soul in accordance with virtue” (Aristotle 22).

If virtue leads to happiness, then we must understand what it means to be virtuous.  There are two types of virtues.  There are intellectual virtues (such as wisdom, intelligence, and prudence) and moral virtues (such as liberty and temperance).  The possession of these virtues is what makes one virtuous, which is what leads to happiness according to Aristotle.  Intellectual virtues are obtained by experience and teaching.  Moral virtues, however, are obtained by practice.  We strengthen them by exercising them.

So to return to the dartboard illustration, virtue is like taking aim at the dart board, which is happiness, and knowing that the goal is to hit the board is like teleology.  If we have no goal, then we have no chance of attaining what we want (like happiness).