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Aristotle

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Aristotle
Aristotle:Nicomachean Ethics
Jonathan Rodriguez

I. Introduction
Aristotle is considered to be one of the greatest philosophical thinkers of all time. His writings compose of searching 'what is the purpose of life' and 'function of man'. His goal was to know what makes a person’s life well and how we get there. Aristotle believes that the nature of morality is grounded in the function of persons, meaning that we must act in order to become happy and fulfilled. What are the functions of persons and how does one acquire virtue? To live a good life is to aim towards living a good life by acquiring habits that make one become good by doing good. Essentially human activity is aimed towards acquiring happiness for themselves and others to achieve a status of well-being. The idea is that moral excellence is an activity that is in our power and we practice this activity through reasoning. An individual doesn’t do anything for no reason, an individual has reasons as to why one does things, and we act with ends in mind whatever those ends may be. According to aristotle the ultimate end is to contribute happiness to oneself. A person is always searching for happiness by aiming towards what makes him happy and this doesn’t take a day, it takes a lifetime.
Aristotle has an idea as to what the functionalist accounts of persons are which I will introduce in Section two. Next in Section three, I will discuss the connection between virtue and the function of persons. Lastly in Section four, I will elaborate on the doctrine of the mean as described by Aristotle. His writings were way ahead of his time (around 300 B.C.) which is what makes Aristotle one of the most notable philosophers off all time. His wondering of the function of man notes his powerful indepth thinking. I will also provide a conclusion at the end of this essay.
II. Aristotle's view on the functionalist account of persons
Aristotle claims that being good or bad is up to us and


Cited: Cahn, Steven. Exploring Ethics An Introductory Anthology: Oxford University Press, 2011. Print.
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