Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics

Response: Answer the following prompt in 400+ words by Friday 9/30 at 11:59 pm. Your response should demonstrate that you have read the primary text (i.e., Books I, II, and X of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics), watched the video lectures, and reflected deeply on the prompt below. [Reading the optional secondary source: Hughes, Routledge Guidebook to Aristotle on Ethics, esp. Ch.3 “The Fulfilled Life” (p.21-51) will be tremendously helpful for completing this assignment]. You may (and probably should) quote from the text, but this will not count toward the minimum word requirement. Simply stating your opinion is not enough: You need to argue your case (i.e., provide reasons to support your view).

Prompt: Develop your own conception of eudaimonia. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle claims that eudaimonia is life’s ultimate aim and purpose. While the Ancient Greek term “eudaimonia” is typically translated as “happiness,” it actually refers to something like human fulfillment or “human flourishing” – i.e., a life in which one achieves one’s full human potential. Aristotle claims that each of us needs to have a clear sense of what eudaimonia is if we want to have any chance of achieving it, so I would like you to reflect upon eudaimonia and sketch your own vision of human fulfillment. What is the best possible life for a human being? How do human beings actualize our full human potential? What truly matters in life for creatures like us? What should human beings ultimately value? (If this helps: Imagine that you are on your deathbed and reflecting upon your life. What kind of person would you like to have been? What would you want to have accomplished in this all too brief existence? What kind of life would you ideally have liked to have lived? How would you like to have spent your time? What “virtues” or “excellences” would you like to have developed?) After you have presented your own view, answer the following question: How does your concept of the eudaimonic life compare with that presented by Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics?

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