Aristotle Eudaimonia Analysis

In engineering, there are several necessary virtues or excellences needed to flourish in their respective fields. This paper will highlight Aristotle’s understanding of eudaimonia (happiness), arête (virtue), and telos (a final cause or end). Aristotle also makes a distinction between two types of virtues, thought and character. Expanding upon these two, the virtue of thought is described to be about wisdom, comprehension, and intelligence. Whereas, the virtue of character is said to be about generosity and temperance. Relating these to engineering, an engineer must use the virtue of thought to make educated decisions in the work place not to cause harm to others. In addition, the engineer must use the virtue of character to gain patience and …show more content…
For Aristotle, eudaimonia involved activity and exhibiting virtue according to reason. This occurred from Aristotle’s understanding of the human nature, along with the view that reason is unique to human beings. Arête, meaning moral virtue of excellence of any kind, was viewed by Aristotle to be developing virtues such as justice and self-restraint. Along with being linked to excellence and virtue, arête is also linked with human knowledge, and if the highest human knowledge is knowledge about knowledge itself. Aristotle called this theoretical study of human knowledge “contemplation,” and that it is the highest human ability and happiness. Defining telos as an end, purpose, or a final cause for which a thing or act is done, this can be a controversial type of explanation. Aristotle claimed that telos could be present without any form of deliberation, consciousness, or intelligence. An example Aristotle refers to, would be “a seed has the eventual adult plant at its end, if and only if the seed would become the adult plant under normal …show more content…
As an industrial and systems engineer, one must strive for excellence in their field, or arête, as they find the best and most efficient way to handle many possible problems. A few examples of these would be, locating where to place a facility, how much inventory should be kept and where, how can the output be increased, and when should the facility expand. An engineer in this field would gain eudaimonia as they move up the ranks solving the problems they are given, and defining their virtue of character along the way. The character of the engineer could change better or for worse as they face different problems throughout their career and pressured to think or act in a certain way that could go against their own