Lecture 3

1. Lecture 3 • Summing up: Plato • Aristotle • Aristotle’s Theory of the World • Aristotle on Happiness • Aristotle on Equality & Inequality

2. The Upshot of Plato’s Gorgias • The proofs are inconclusive. • What is important: Plato has proposed an alternative to the relativism of the Sophists, one that is open to scientific,philosophical inquiry.

3. Plato’s Two Central Claims • 1. All human beings will the same thing-- to live well. • 2. Living well consists in being virtuous.

4. Implications of Plato’s Claims • 1. Value is not relative to the subjective perception of the individual. There are true and false perceptions of happiness. • 2. Moral virtue is valuable in itself, not merely as a means to getting on in society. • 3. The standard of value and of moral virtue is to be found in human nature, not in social conventions.

5. Aristotle’s Theory of The World • Aristotle builds on Plato’s foundations. • Aristotle’s views are shaped by his interest in biology. • Aristotle rejected the materialism of many of his predecessors: Empedocles, Democritus.

6. The Four “Causes” • 1. Formal • 2. Final (teleological) • 3. Efficient • 4. Material

7. The standard example: a bronze commemorative statue • 1. Formal cause: shape of the bronze, its resemblance to military hero on horseback • 2. Final cause: its purpose as a commemoration of bravery and service • 3. Efficient cause: its origin in a bronze forge • 4. Material cause: the mixture of metals in its alloy

8. Organs have all 4 causes: the heart • 1. Formal cause: the specific configuration of parts that make up a healthy, working heart • 2. Final cause: its purpose as a blood pump • 3. Efficient cause: its origin in the intrauterine development of the fetus • 4. Material cause: the various tissues (muscle, blood vessels, nerves) that constitute its substance

9. From Parts to the Whole • Aristotle reasons: if all the parts of the organism have functions, so must the organism as a whole. • Sometimes accused of the “fallacy of composition”. • Although not a foolproof inference, it does seem a reasonable extrapolation.

10. The 4 causes of an organism: the human being • 1. Formal cause: the human "soul", with three aspects: vegetative, perceptual/motor, and rational • 2.Final cause: eudaemonia • 3. Efficient cause: the processes of human reproduction & development • 4. Material cause: the various organs and internal systems

11. Atomism vs. Holism • Atomists (materialists): the parts are prior to the whole. The whole (human being) can be understood completely by understanding the parts of the body and their interaction. • Holists (Aristotle): the whole is prior to the parts. The parts of the body cannot be understood apart from the contribution they make to the proper functioning of the whole.

12. Key issue: legitimacy of final/teleological explanation • Do organic systems (including human beings) really have built-in purposes and proper or natural functions, or do they only appear so? • Materialists: only the appearance of function. • Aristotle: function is real and fundamental.

13. Aristotle on Happiness • What is Happiness? • The comprehensive, ultimate final cause of human life -- the end to which or for the sake of which humans are organized as they are.

14. Proving that Happiness is our Final Cause • Two Steps: • A Subjective step: what is it that is our “most final” and complete end? • An objective step: what is our final cause?

15. The Subjective Step • All of our actions have a purpose or end, either internal or external. • The chain of means & ends must terminate in some ultimate ends -- things valued for their own sake. • Happiness is our most final end. • In addition, it is self-sufficient: the happy person lacks nothing.

16. The Objective Step • Assume that human beings have a function & a final cause. • Principle of harmony: the functioning of each part contributes to the functioning of the whole. • Our most final end (happiness) shapes our choices, and our choices shape our lives as a whole. • Hence, happiness must be our final cause.

17. If Happiness is our Final Cause, what does it consist in? • The final cause of the whole person consists in the harmonious realization of the final cause of the parts: the capacities for mental, social and physical action. • The function of reason is to order the whole of life. • So, happiness consists in a complete human life, governed by reason.

18. We Must distinguish Three Things • The necessary conditions for happiness. • The essential parts or components or aspects of happiness. • Evidence, indicators and symptoms of happiness.

19. Some Necessary Conditions of Happiness • Moral and intellectual virtue • Friends and family • Sufficient material goods • Freedom and opportunity for fulfilling work and recreation • A long life

20. Some components of happiness • Intellectual activity (learning, inquiring, contemplating) [Most important] • Active civic/political life, conducted with virtue • Participation in true friendship • Enjoying the arts

21. By-products and indicators of happiness • Pleasure • Enjoyment • Satisfaction • Honor, good reputation

22. Aristotle vs. Plato • Happiness is not virtue -- happiness is the use, not merely the possession of virtue. • Consequently, one cannot be perfectly happy without freedom, property and friends. • Aristotle distinguishes between intellectual and moral virtue, and holds the intellectual life to be most important.

23. Aristotle vs. Hedonists • Pleasure is not identical to happiness: it is an indicator or by-product of happiness. • We can have false or illusory pleasures. The virtuous person is pleased by the right things.

24. Aristotle’s Ultimate Conclusion • Happiness is a complete, active life, lived according to reason (logos). • Reason (thought, understanding) is the unique, distinctive feature of human beings. • Reason is obviously a higher (more god-like) function than nutrition, movement or perception.

25. Implications of Aristotle’s Views • 1. Ethical values are absolute, universal • 2. Virtuous action is an end in itself, not merely a means to social reward. • 3. We have reliable, pre-scientific knowledge of ethics: common sense, the consensus of wise people • 4. This knowledge can be supplemented and confirmed scientifically.

26. Justice and the “City” • Justice is not merely a compromise between competing interests. • There is a "common good": all of our individual happinesses depend on participating in a just society. • Thus, the city is a partnership, whose end (final cause) is living well (eudaemonia).

27. Moral virtue is always a “mean” between 2 extremes • Cowardice -- Courage -- Foolhardiness • Stinginess -- Liberality -- Profligacy • Abstemiousness -- Moderation -- Debauchery • Moral virtue is a matter of having the right desires in the right proportions. • These proportions are a matter of reason (logos).

28. Friendship is essential to happiness Three forms of friendship: • Friendships of shared tastes, interests • Friendships of mutual advantage • True friendships: based on mutual recognition of virtue

29. Aristotle on Equality and Inequality • Justice is treating equals equally, and unequals unequally. • Who are equal?

30. Aristotle on Slavery • Aristotle assumes that most societies are close to a state of justice, just as most organisms are close to a state of health. • All developed societies in Aristotle's times were based on slavery. • Consequently, Aristotle inferred that some forms of slavery must be just.

31. Contrast with the Hebrew/Biblical Tradition • Hebrews are delivered from slavery in Egypt by God. Commanded to treat strangers as equals. • The Fall (Genesis 3): all societies are radically unhealthy (spiritually speaking). • The Bible accepts slavery as a given, but puts limits on it (emancipation every jubilee -- 50 year cycle).

32. In defense of Aristotle • Not a blanket justification of slavery. • Slavery is justified only if the slaves are incapable of rational self-control. • Applies only to household slaves (a kind of extended family), not to sheer exploitation: mass agricultural labor, galley slaves, etc.

33. Defense, cont. • Aristotle’s system was (apparently) temporary in nature: • Designed to inculcate virtue in the slaves through participation in the household. Implication: if successful, the slaves should be emancipated. • Since the children of slaves are raised in the same household as the master’s children, no basis for inheriting a slave’s status (should be as capable of virtue as the free children).

34. Is modern world so different? • We’ve abolished chattel slavery, but not all “slavery” in Aristotle’s sense, so long as some adults (innocent of crime) are under the control/guardianship of others - • Mentally ill committed to institutions for their own protection • Severely mentally handicapped