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Single Idea 5120

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

Full Idea

If we base our ethics on human flourishing, one implication would seem to be moral relativism, since what counts as 'flourishing' seems inevitably relative to one or other set of values.

Gist of Idea

What counts as 'flourishing' must be relative to various sets of values

Source

Gilbert Harman (Human Flourishing, Ethics and Liberty [1983], 9.2.1)

Book Ref

Harman,Gilbert: 'Explaining Value and Other Essays' [OUP 2000], p.156

A Reaction

This remark seems to make the relativist assumption that all value systems are equal. For Aristotle, flourishing is no more relative than health is. No one can assert that illness has an intrinsically high value in human life.

The 15 ideas with the same theme [Greek concept of fulfilment/happiness/flourishing]:

1646 Socrates was the first to put 'eudaimonia' at the centre of ethics [Socrates, by Vlastos]
14178 Happiness is secure enjoyment of what is good and beautiful [Plato]
18673 Eudaimonia is said to only have final value, where reason and virtue are also useful [Aristotle, by Orsi]
5127 Does Aristotle say eudaimonia is the aim, or that it ought to be? [McDowell on Aristotle]
5143 Some good and evil can happen to the dead, just as the living may be unaware of a disaster [Aristotle]
5996 Critolaus redefined Aristotle's moral aim as fulfilment instead of happiness [Critolaus, by White,SA]
13302 Life is like a play - it is the quality that matters, not the length [Seneca]
5068 'Eudaimonia' means 'having a good demon', implying supreme good fortune [Taylor,R]
5120 What counts as 'flourishing' must be relative to various sets of values [Harman]
8005 'Happiness' is a bad translation of 'eudaimonia', which includes both behaving and faring well [MacIntyre]
21836 Philosophers after Aristotle endorsed the medical analogy for eudaimonia [Nussbaum, by Flanagan]
21835 We need Eudaimonics - the empirical study of how we should flourish [Flanagan]
20199 Nowadays we doubt the Greek view that the flourishing of individuals and communities are linked [Zagzebski]
4324 Animals and plants can 'flourish', but only rational beings can have eudaimonia [Hursthouse]
7099 With a broad concept of flourishing, it might be possible without the virtues [Statman]