What Does Selfishness Mean

The famous example that could be used to illustrate what Aristotle means, by when he states “mean” is the example of someone who is a coward, this individual is seen in the bottom of the virtuous spectrum, and something that is excess is one who is reckless. But a virtuous person would be seen as someone who is courageous, this falls in the middle of the spectrum, which defines one who is not a coward nor reckless, but in the medium of these two. Aristotle is also elaborative and just doesn’t explain what this is, he also explains how one could obtain this mean. And this is through trial and error. Meaning that one should continuously strive to figure out what is needed to achieve this means. In essence this requires one to make errors until …show more content…
This could be defined as someone who is interested in their own actions rather than another person’s. Hobbes describes that everyone should seek out their pleasures and doesn’t consider the sufficiency nor insufficiency of that notion. For example, if there are people living within a society that have different pleasures that are not seem as norms, Hobbes would argue that the person should still pursue these pleasures. A society cannot prosper from this notion because not everybody has the same pleasures, or it is seen as good pleasures. If one were to have the desire to cheat on a spouse then Hobbes would argue that they should go and do so. But, this doesn’t seem to be ethical, and Hobbes would not find this desire to be sinful. On the other hand, with the understanding that it would not be a virtuous act of loyalty if one were to cheat on their spouse. Aristotle would oppose this view of …show more content…
“The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else. And so one might rather take the aforenamed objects to be ends; for they are loved for themselves” (Aristotle, 4). Aristotle explains here that the good we ought to not seek is the gaining of wealth or material things that will distract us from living a virtuous life. “So that in the first place, I put for a general inclination of all mankind a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death. And the cause of this is not always that a man hopes for a more intensive delight than he has already attained to, or that he cannot be content with a moderate power, but because he cannot assure the power and means to live well, which he hath present, without the acquisition of more” (Hobbes, 4). In this quote Hobbes speaks nothing of virtues., In fact he is speaking of the complete opposite which Aristotle would find as non-virtuous, and that is the excess of one’s wealth. Hobbes explains that one could not be content with moderate power but the excess of power perhaps might, but this indeed could prevent someone from achieving full happiness because it could lead to the corruption of a