Aristotle And The Chief Good

Aristotle believes that all actions and questions are done for the purpose of some sort of good. If there is something that we desire something that fulfills itself, an ultimate end, then this thing must be good and the chief good. This chief good should have an influence on the rest of how we live our lives as we aim for this target. Politics, ethics and social philosophy, should have this quality. Aristotle also believes that reaching this good for a nation or state is greater than reaching it for an individual - I assume because it will positively impact the whole nation of people rather than just the individual. Aristotle believes that good and moral actions, guided by politics, are achieved through convention rather than by nature. This causes him to conclude that the best people for politics are those who are educated about them and have the most experience with them. Having a less experienced person create ideas and laws is foolish, as they are more likely to be flawed. People are good judges of what they know- making the young bad to get political advice from. Aristotle says that most people hold the opinion that ‘happiness’ is the chief good that people aim for. Aristotle identifies a person's chief …show more content…
One of the reasons that he says virtues can't be created by nature is that our virtues tend to come from habits, and we cannot create a habit that is contrary to our nature making the source of morality convention. The only way we become skilled in an area is by performing that skill, moral actions being performed leads to better moral actions and behavior, which leads to habits. Aristotle breaks the human personality into three elements: passions, faculties, and states of character. He believes that morality comes from states of character as passions and faculties are not, in themselves, worthy of praise. Being a state of character it makes man good and makes his work good