 All right, well Aristotle is asking the same question that a lot of the people that we've discussed this semester are asking and You know that question is what is the secret to a good life? What does it mean? to be moral Now again for these for these ancients you have be curious Aristotle. They thought that Morality was the question of happiness fulfillment now for Aristotle The answer to this question and then you know the question is how what does it mean to be to live a good life? The answer to this question was cultivating the virtues or we might understand them as habits and Which habits should we cultivate? Well, it's those habits that perfect the mind and the will To understand Aristotle's theory we have to start with what he means when he's talking about goods Now, you know, I've I'm fond of saying this and you know, I think Aristotle is very much right about this you know every Every action every activity every thing that a human being does has an end You know end is the the goal of the purpose the reason for pursuing that end of that activity and That you know that goal that purpose well, that's a good That's a good So, you know when you eat, what's the end? Well the end is to Satisfy hunger for nutrition. Yeah, so satisfying hunger This you know to you know to provide nutrition for the body. This is a good. Okay So there are at least women's many different kinds of goods But there's at least two ways that we can Talk about goods we could talk about instrumental goods And we could talk about independent goods Instrumental good is a good that is good for something else So it's good for the sake of something else And an independent good is good because of well what that is it's good in and of itself Independent good is also quite often especially in today's language called an intrinsic good an intrinsic good Well, you know, well since we're looking at Aristotle's reading here. We'll stick with independent good Now, you know, so we have two different kinds of goods independent good and intrinsic good. Okay That's right. I'm sorry instrumental good and independent good, right? So what would be the example of this? Well, suppose Yeah, suppose you want to study computer programming Suppose you want to study computer programming, but you can't do computer programming very long without having to be able to type If you get a programming computer, you got to be able to type on a keyboard so typing if you pursue typing For the sake of computer programming Well typing is a good it is, you know this skill and typing is a good But it is an instrumental good It is good for something else. Namely, it's good to improve your abilities and computer programming You really can't get very far in program without being able to type or Say you're a cook right say you like to cook Well in addition to being able to mix a variety of tastes, right? You know, this is this is kind of the essence of cooking as is being able to produce a dish That's not only nutritious, but tastes are really good. You probably also have to you get kind of good at chopping and cutting with a knife this isn't you know an essential part of Learning how to mix tastes and supposedly you can you know, suppose you could have somebody who? Chops all your food for you and that happens But in order to improve your skills in order to make things easier for you Being skilled with a knife and you're sharpening a knife keeping a knife good and sharp Well that that's an instrumental good for cooking. That is good That skill is good for the sake of this other skill for the sake of cooking. All right So we've got instrumental goods and we've got independent goods These are in the independent goods are good for the sake of themselves So here's a question Do we have a multiplicity of these independent goods? Is there? You know just you know a variety of independent goods you could choose from or Is there one good that is good above all of these? Is there this chief? Well, you might call this chief independent go to this chief good And Aristotle thinks there is Aristotle says this chief good This independent good at which everything else aims at where the chief good is what everything else aims at Aristotle says this chief good is Happiness the chief good is happiness So the question becomes What's happiness well this question is than what is happiness? To get the ball rolling Aristotle considers, you know, at least in his time three prominent suggestions sensuality or pleasure honor or what what we might call social recognition and contemplation And sensuality is the first one he looks at. You know sensuality is pretty straightforward It's not hard to imagine what Aristotle is talking about here. We you know, you're average night in Las Vegas, right? You know, that would be an example of sensuality You know your physical pleasures, you know a life Pursuing good food good wine good times You know you basic he's the lifestyle Aristotle thinks that isn't going to do it Now the reason why you know first he considers a sardinopolis a Sardinopolis Aristotle thought and this was this was the leading thought of time was the the last the Syrian king and This guy got real self-involved He pursued pleasure to its fullest in the you know to its to its ends, right? You can imagine the variety of things a sardinopolis tried to do and you know at least according to legend this led to you know this kind of self-centered view the sardinopolis had of itself and and You know this is real extreme narcissism and eventually his his political ruin and violent upheaval So you know what Aristotle is trying to do here is say you don't want to pursue sensuality because look what happened is sardinopolis, okay? you know That's good as far as it goes except that probably Aristotle really did not have very good information about sardinopolis. It looks like the information he had about him was wrong Believe me on that aside, we could probably imagine a few examples where people pursue a life of pleasure Do not come to good ends Where they they ultimately suffer for that decision Yeah, you might have some anecdotal cases, but that's not necessarily a good conceptual argument and You know sure seems like there's some people out there who have a lot of fun pursuing a pleasurable life Well, you know without really considering that I think Aristotle at least is implicitly considering the possibility Which is why he gives he kind of slides this other argument and it's like look if you're pursuing a life of pleasure You're always gonna need something else You're always gonna depend upon something else if you're pursuing a life of culinary pleasure You're always gonna need the best chefs and the best food and the choices. You know the choices options if you're pursuing How shall we say pharmaceutical alternatives? Right? You're always gonna need to rely on somebody else to provide those kinds of substances to Relate, you know indulge in in order to have that kind of pleasure You know if you are pursuing a life of wine, right? You're always gonna need somebody out there to make the wine if they be really good at making that wine You know if it's your variety of other Sensualities, you're always gonna need other people Other things other people's work in order to have that kind of life That means in effect. You're always gonna depend upon somebody else You're always gonna depend upon somebody else and That's a little scary to Aristotle. It's like how is it that my happiness you know an independent good a good pursuit for its own sake Is always gonna need something else for it. So it's gonna need somebody else for that Now he thinks that this happiness has got to be able to be in a sense self-contained. You've got to be able to do it You've got to you've got to be able to achieve this happiness without relying upon the work of somebody else You know an extreme version of this of this always depending on somebody else is something we're familiar with the something We already want to avoid it's called addiction So that's that's the first thing that Aristotle considers is That if you're pursuing this life of pleasure, you're always gonna need to depend upon somebody else for that And that's not gonna be happiness The second option he considers is honor what we might call public praise Reputation is probably a good word here How people think of you in the public sphere and a lot of people pursue this they do So Aristotle asked a question is this worth pursuing is this going to be the secret to happiness everybody thinking you're great and wonderful now if you've Never been the object of public praises. It's really pretty cool You know, and I'm not saying I'm a rock star But yeah, so more than a few times a group of people have said yeah You've done a really great job and it feels great. It really does And if you never had that You know, you probably can't relate exactly what Aristotle was talking about there But this you have lots of people seeing your praises to say you're wonderful and great. Yeah, that feels pretty good But here's what Aristotle says they look What are the two possibilities with with this kind of public praise? Either this public praise is coming from basically fools like idiots morons the unwise or This praise is coming from the wise Well, suppose the praise is coming from fools It's not worthwhile Right. Why is that worthwhile? All right Yeah, yeah, we know what it's the we've quite a few times looked at somebody who's praised by Others that we deem less than honorable, right? And we deem them to be less of than a wonderful intelligence or character, right and we think oh gosh Yeah, sure. He's being praised but you're being praised by moron What why is that a good thing? And this is Aristotle's point being praised by the foolish is not really praise worth having It's not a big deal Well, what's the other possibility of being praised by the wines? Well, if you're praised by the wise, you know, this is a big deal It is it is a good thing to be praised by the wise But the reason why it's good to be praised by the wise is because it's wisdom That's you know, they're praising you in virtue of wisdom wisdom is the thing. That's worth having Wisdom this this greatness whatever it is Wisdom is the thing that's worth having But not the praise itself The praise itself doesn't have any value. It's the wisdom behind it It's the good. It's the estimation of somebody who knows what they're doing That's worthwhile So somebody who's rather intelligent somebody who's lived a great life somebody who's You know done good things and their life they sit there and they praises it that was good You did a good job there Well, the reason why that praises work is worthwhile is because of the good things behind the praise not the praise itself So praise, you know, it's nice. Sure. It's fun. It's not a bad thing But it's not the secret of happiness It's just wisdom whatever it is So this leaves a third option leaves contemplation Aristotle says well, you know, it's not pleasure. It's not praise. It's not honor. So it's got to be contemplation. That's what's left Now the question is well What is this contemplation and even more importantly? How is it that contemplation? Gives one a life worth living Aristotle set aside sensuality and honor Left us with contemplation. Well, how did he get here in the first place? Well? Well, I think the contemplation is what's going to bring us happiness well for Aristotle The you know, what's best for a thing what makes a thing great is going to depend upon what a thing is What a thing is I don't understand what a thing is you have to stand What it's like and how it's different from what it's like so that that's Probably not clear all of a sudden. So yeah, suppose we're dealing with a couch Well, what is a couch? It would be a question And to answer, you know, what a couch is, you know, first we got to say well, we got to identify things like a couch You know besides other couches Well, you know for couches, what do we got? We got chairs, you know things that are like couches. We got chairs We got tables We got what Bookshelves things like this. These are all like couches In the sense that they are furniture the their furniture now That's not the end of the story, right? uh To you know First step is to understand what it's what it's like what things are like it and that's what It's not in this reading but and and other works of Aristotle. It's what's called the genus And the genus is the kind of thing. It's it's what it's the things the kind of thing that it's like So the first thing that we know about a couch is that it's furniture The next thing we got to know is how it's different from what it's like And this is uh, uh called the species So a couch is like a chair and it's like a table and it's like a bookshelf But there are also some important differences. They're all furniture, but there's important differences So let's start with the thing. It's you know most uh, you know Uh, very different from right that'd be a bookshelf bookshelf and the couch are both furniture, but A big difference between a bookshelf and a couch is that a bookshelf is just for books Or you know for other things to be placed upon it. Uh, but not people People do not occupy shelves of the bookshelf Okay, so that's one thing You know, but you know couches are like tables because tables are occupied by people right Well, what's going to make a couch different from a table? Well, um, you know tables are occupied by people. Sure Uh, but uh people don't or at least not supposed to sit on tables You're supposed to sit at a table but not on a table Hmm, so that's how couches are different from tables. You know the couches are similar to chairs Both chairs and couches are set upon Well, what's going to be the difference between a couch and a chair? Well, like a chair Has only one person typically just one person where like couches two people or more It's the idea it could fit two people or more So this is what makes a couch a couch is a piece of furniture That two or more people sit on So furniture is the genus Two or more people sit on it is the species So if we're going to understand Our happiness If we're going to understand what's good for us We have to understand what we are So here's the question. What are you? Understanding what you are May not always be the easiest thing So first we have to understand understand what we're like and then how we're different from what we're like Well, probably the easiest way to start kind of divvying up the sort of thing is you know compare me to I don't know that wall I am of all the things that you can see right now on the camera. I am probably least like the wall Um, the wall does not move the wall is not alive The wall, uh, it doesn't breathe. It doesn't grow It has no will of its own I'm even more like the water that's coming out of the wall than I am the wall the water is at least moving The water at least has living things in it So there's this first difference between me and and you and and everything else And that is that I am alive I have a soul Now Aristotle's not trying to get mystical here. Uh, a soul was just You know that you know, we think of a soul as this kind of um, you know, ghost That inhabits our bodies that can leave and come back That wasn't what Aristotle had in mind. Not many ancients did have that idea um Now the soul is just uh was this principle of movement. It was this principle of life what animated you animated you so, uh I have a soul the wall does not and how do I know this because I can move I have a will and the wall doesn't Now so that's the first difference right between me and everything else We have the difference between living things and things that are not alive So let's look at the living things Uh, there are more than a few living things out here. I could tell you that That's one of the reasons why I come out here is I like to be around life so, uh Amongst living things we have what plants We have animals and uh, you know us Now I'm pretty different from a plant There's something, uh, you know the the plates have what's called a vegetative soul What Aristotle calls a vegetative soul and that just means that it has nutrition and growth, right? You know plants kind of sort of I mean they grow Uh, but they don't really move especially not like me. I could pick up and walk the plant can't um But there's something that the plant and I have in common and animals right we all grow we're all We all take in food. We all need water So all of us the plants the animals and me we have at least some kind of vegetative aspect of our souls But there's a difference between Me and the animals and plants right and that that is uh, you know A will right we move we make decisions. We move on our own accord Yeah, so this there's this difference between Me and plants, you know, sorry animals and plants and that that's this this movement so, uh I'm going to share an excellence at least some excellence with the plant I'm going to share something that's good with the plant namely nutrition and growth Well, that's about it beyond that the plants and I really can't relate to each other Um So next we have to consider the animals There's a lot that I have in common and you have in common with animals right we have a will we have desires Since we have a will we have desires you try to fulfill the desires That's what it means for Aristotle to have a will is that that which allows you to fulfill your desires Now, uh, that that's great and all so We share some goods with animals namely fulfillment of desires and things like What shelter comfort? Joy, enjoyment of things stuff like that. Uh, we have a versions to fear anger that sort of thing you know, basically A lot of your emotional states But there's something that we have when we would share this with animals would share this this these desires this uh This kind of part of the soul, but there's something that we have the animals don't And that's a rational part of our soul We can reason we can think believe reach conclusions. We can understand the world So the so we have to understand what we are We are living things That have desires and reason So there's there's all living things that's the genus Then to kind of separate animals from plants right living things with desires Right, so plants are just things that grow animals are things that grow with desires And then uh, so that's an animal And so on top of that our genus is animal and what separates us from the rest Is that we have reason we can think So for air coordinate Aristotle, we all have a rational part of our soul And the irrational My name and better my name is better to say non-rational um You know this just doesn't have anything to do with reason So there's the vegetative part. There's that which uh has nutrition and growth That has the life kind of the you know the starting point of it all Then there's the desires or the what's called appetite? The desires, but these are still non-rational And you know Aristotle goes any so far as to say that desires can be irrational They can be irrational They can work against reason And then finally there's reason Now the happiness for Aristotle consists in this this excellence of all the parts of the soul working together To being the best You know to function the best that it can all right So this is kind of easy to understand where we start with the body we start with the vegetative aspect Good, you know nutritious food even good tasting food sure to an extent All right bad tasting food isn't necessarily good for us, right? It's better to have better tasting food than the terribly tasting food, but it does have to be nutritious water exercise These are goods For the body Then there's uh the goods of you know desires sure And we are we desire a lot right we desire Sensuality we desire honor we do desire these things we really do Uh and in that's in that sense they're good sort of But We could be irrational in the pursuit of things like sensuality and and and honor Because they don't actually bring happiness actually knock us out of balance So desires Can be good to the extent that they still maintain And that they're kept under control they maintain that balance within the person within the human being And then there's finally contemplation And the good you know some of the examples are good Of these kinds of goods that Aristotle mentioned Uh, yes, it's physical science You know analysis of the physical sciences knowing how the world works around you Contemplating you know we can think about contemplating great truths like mathematics and history philosophy wisdom To spend one's life in contemplation and in understanding The world around us because that's something that we do that nobody else does not nothing else does We understand the world We systematize it we study it We understand that Um, there are differences in different places in the world, right? We have the ability though. We don't always do this We have the ability to understand that there's more than what we simply believe And this is what's going to bring Balance excellence in a person it's contemplation of the world around you and yourself