Aristotle Good Life Analysis

Aristotle discusses in his collection of books Nicomachean Ethics and Politics what it means to be a good person and how to live a good fulfilling life. He believes everyone has a goal and must reach their highest potential to feel satisfied in life. Aristotle gives reasonings on how to be a virtuous human and how to be a good citizen in the society in which you live. Although both writings discuss the same umbrella topic of the Good Life, they both provide a various amount of philosophical advice and facts on how this way of living is the best way.
Aristotle’s concept of the Good Life can be described as ends and means. Every human being has an end goal or Telos as Aristotle describes. For each end, there are means. In Book I, happiness is …show more content…
Aristotle refers to man by nature, a political animal. (footnote that shit). The telos for a political animal is to have the ability to discuss openly about the city’s needs and in the end, becomes the city’s telos. Cities develop more like a plant than a machine and there is an impulse to live toward the city. Because nature does nothing in vein, there is a mean to why people congregate and form cities. To live in the city and to live well and to treat the city well is fulfillment of ones and the city’s telos, which leads to the Good Life. In Book I of Politics, Aristotle discusses that studying is the “better” choice than to be active, because when your mind is actively thinking you are learning the most important things that you can later pass down to those below you. Aristotle believes that the standard good man run the city and pass down his wisdom to others, so they can be virtuous and good too. Aristotle believes that the city is there to prevent from becoming evil whereas Lycophron believes prevent from doing evil. If a ship is the state and the sailors are the citizens, it is up to the sailors to secure the city. A good captain had to have learned to be a good captain by merely being a sailor and learning through experience and eventually reaching his telos. If you can have your city …show more content…
To be both a good man and a good citizen means looking out for yourself and for others and doing good and finding pleasure from doing good. This is the life Aristotle wants everyone to reach. The good life would be to be a good man, but not a very good citizen. This may be because he is a political animal, but has reached his telos by publicly discussing the city. Although he does not benefit the city, he benefits himself and has pushed to the highest potential he can. A good enough life would be to be only a good citizen in a good regime. The regime would be free from instrumental needs due to the solutions the city has found. A good enough life is a man who acts rightly, but is inclined to do wrong. He is also unsatisfied because his desires cannot be met because he cannot choose to be