Single Idea 5143

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / b. Eudaimonia]

Full Idea

It is popularly believed that some good and evil, such as honours, or disasters of children, can happen to a dead man, inasmuch as they can happen to a live one without his being aware of them.

Gist of Idea

Some good and evil can happen to the dead, just as the living may be unaware of a disaster

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1100a17)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.82


A Reaction

This suggests 'internalist' and 'externalist' accounts of happiness, with eudaimonia being the externalist view. If an architect designs a spectacular building, and it collapses the day after they die, that has to be a disaster for the architect.