 So I'm out here on this really very nice day, walking around, talking to myself, to a camera. But every action that I'm performing has a purpose, it has an intention. I'm trying to do something, I'm trying to achieve something. And this is what Aristotle calls a good. Every action is aimed at a good. Every human endeavor is aimed at a good. We always do something for a reason, for a purpose. Well these goods are going to be a central part of what Aristotle has to say about morality. As you remember, morality very much involves decisions. If you're making decisions, you have a moral theory. Well for Aristotle, if you're making decisions, you have some kind of good in mind. You have something that you're trying to achieve. The question is, what is a good? So we said that you perform actions for a purpose, you're trying to achieve something, you're trying to accomplish something, you have a goal, you have something that you want to happen. And Aristotle calls these goods. Now you might pretty often realize that goods are often done for the sake of something else. So we asked everybody in the class why you are taking this class, and most of you had the very honest answer that you're taking this class for a requirement. So the idea is that you're taking the class for the sake of something else, namely you're required to take this class for a degree. Well when a good is performed for the sake of something else, we call that an instrumental good, an instrumental good. It's a good accomplished for the sake of something else. We can also think of this as steps towards a final goal. So you're taking your courses for your goal of a degree, but the degree isn't even the final goal. The degree is to get the job. The job is for the sake of something else, it could be for a paycheck, it could be for a living, it could be for the sake of supporting family. There's quite often when we have a goal in mind it's for the sake of something else. Now you might ask yourself, you might wonder, is there a good that is good simply for its own sake? Is there something that we try to achieve simply for the sake of achieving that thing? And it's a really big question for error stop. So what would this be like? What would this be? What would this mean or can we even show that there is this good that we work for simply for its own sake? So we've been talking about goods as what we're trying to accomplish with action. And a question, and we were talking about instrumental goods, and these are goods that we accomplish for the sake of something else. So a question that we can ask ourselves really quickly is, is there a good that's simply good for its own sake? We perform this thing simply for its own sake. Well, is there a way that we can show that there is even such a thing without necessarily knowing what it is? Well, Aristotle thinks so. So think about this. Suppose that whatever you're doing, suppose we're working out, suppose I'm working out, and trying really hard, I'm swimming, I'm exercising, I'm eating right, but I'm just not losing any weight. In fact, I'm still gaining weight. My blood pressure is rising. My pulse rate is rising. My resting pulse rate is rising. My cholesterol is rising. In fact, it seems like nothing that I'm doing is helping in any way to make me healthy. So ask yourself, if I'm swimming and exercising or working out for the sake of being healthy, swimming and exercising is an instrumental good for the sake of being healthy, and if I'm not actually being healthy, is swimming and working out actually any good? Well, if it's just an instrumental good, meaning it's good for the sake of something else, and that something else is not happening, then no. For the instrumental good, if what you're trying to get isn't happening using the instrumental good, then the instrumental good is not good for that at all. So it has no goodness. But what would it mean to say that there isn't a good for which everything else is good? Well, that would mean something like this, that whatever good you have, whatever you're trying to do, it's always, always, always just good for something else. So exercise is good for health, and health is good for increased life, and life is good for fun experiences, and if fun experiences are good for memories, and memories are good for a story to tell, and a story to tell is good for hanging out with friends, and you just keep going and going and going and going, and there's always just something that's good, I mean, that whatever good you have is good only for the sake of something else. Is any of that ever actually any good? So you just have this infinite hierarchy of goods. It's always just something that's good for the sake of something else. Well, that would mean something like this, that no matter what you're doing, if everything is just an instrumental good, no matter what you're doing, it never, ever accomplishes that final goal. It never gets to what it's good for. Well, that would be like working out and not ever actually getting healthier. If there's just always something else that it's going to be good for, you'll never get what it's good for. Well, so then that means that nothing is ever any good. Well, we don't think that's true. We think that even our instrumental goods were the good for something. The good for something. Well, if they're good for something and this goodness means that there can't be this infinite continuing of good, well then there's going to be one good that's good for everything else. The exercise is good for the health. The health is good for life. The life is good for a fun experience. This fun experience is good for good times of good friends and so on and so forth. But you keep following up that hierarchy and eventually you're going to hit the highest good. Aristotle thinks this is true, that there is this highest good for which all human activity, all human endeavor, every last thing that you're trying to do is that good that you're trying to accomplish. Well, what would that be? So we've been talking about goods and instrumental goods and Aristotle thinks that there's this highest good and the reason why there has to be this highest good is because if it's not there, then nothing is ever actually good for anything because it's just always good for something else and you never actually achieve this goodness and it all just falls apart. But what is going to be this highest good? Aristotle thinks it's happiness. This is what he gives us in the selections for the Nicomachean ethics. Now, just to be clear, for Aristotle, happiness is not just, you know, that's not just what happiness is. Happiness is not just good times. Happiness is not just feeling giddy or anything like that. Happiness, rather, is something like completion, fulfillment of being. Being which is supposed to be. Fulfillment. These are better synonyms for happiness. Happiness is that state of existence for which you have accomplished what you're supposed to be. You've accomplished that goal of all goals. Exactly, figuring out what happiness is, well, that's tough. How are we supposed to figure out what makes us happy? Well, we're going to look at some ideas for that. This is what Aristotle thinks is the point of morality. When we want to know how we are to live our life, we want to know how we're supposed to guide our decisions. We figure out what brings happiness. Morality is not sitting here and trying to find reasons to think that another person is bad or worthless or terrible or is not a reason to think that you've earned your, you know, you've acquired some kind of station in life or, you know, it's not about being able to look down upon somebody and say, ha, ha, I'm better than you. No, it's about happiness, it's about happiness. So what is this happiness? What is this going to evolve? How do we be happy? Well, we're going to look at that through the course of the semester.