Transcription of 4 Aristotle’s Function Argument - Harvard University
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4 Aristotle’s Function Argument - Harvard University
Christine M. Korsgaard V1 - 04/16/2008 4:15pm Page 1294 aristotle s Function purpose of theNicomachean Ethicsis to discover the human good, that atwhich we ought to aim in life and action. aristotle tells us that everyone calls thisgoodeudaimonia(happiness, flourishing, well-being), but that people disagreeabout what it consists in ( ). , aristotle suggests that wemight arrive at a clearer conception of happiness if we could first ascertain theergon( Function ) of a human being ( ). The justification of thisline of inquiry is that for all things that have a Function or activity, the goodand the well is thought to reside in the Function ( 27). Thecompact Argument that follows establishes that the human Function is anactive life of the element that has a rational principle ( 4). Thehuman good therefore is the activity of the rational part of the soul performedwell, which is to say, in accordance with virtue ( 17).
the function argument, because the theoretical structure of the Nicomachean Ethics collapses without it. Part of the defense is conditional, and shows only that if one held Aristotle’s metaphysical beliefs, the function argument would seem as natural and obvious as it clearly seemed to him. But part of it is
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