18230
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No one would choose life just for activities not done for their own sake [Aristotle]
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Full Idea:
If we put together all the things that are ....not done or undergone for their own sake ...no one would choose, in order to have them, to be alive rather than not.
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From:
Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1215), quoted by Christine M. Korsgaard - Aristotle and Kant on the Source of Value 8 'Finality'
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A reaction:
Debatable. Roughly his question is whether you would rather be dead than be a slave, since slaves work for means, but have no ends. Aristotle would rather die, but those who surrendered in ancient battles preferred slavery.
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23909
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Wearing a shoe is its intrinsic use, and selling it (as a shoe) is its coincidental use [Aristotle]
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Full Idea:
There is intrinsic use of a possession, such as of a shoe or a cloak, and its coincidental use - not of course when using a shoe as a weight, but as, for example, selling it or hiring it out (for then a shoe is used as a shoe).
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From:
Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1231b37)
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A reaction:
This seems to need a third label, for using the shoe as a weight. 'Inessential use' perhaps, since the intrinsic use points towards the essential nature or function of the shoe.
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5870
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Everything seeks, not a single good, but its own separate good [Aristotle]
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Full Idea:
It is not true that everything that there is seeks some single good: each thing has an inclination for its own good, the eye for sight, the body for health, and so on.
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From:
Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1218a30)
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A reaction:
Aristotle's pluralism. Elsewhere this pluralism arises from his function argument - that the good of each thing is the successful fulfilment of its function, which is different for each thing. This is basic to virtue theory, and has my approval.
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5868
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Horses, birds and fish are not happy, lacking a divine aspect to their natures [Aristotle]
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Full Idea:
No horse or bird or fish is happy, nor any other thing that there is which does not have a share by its nature in the divine.
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From:
Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1217a26)
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A reaction:
Pet owners will all feel their beloved companions have been insulted, but I agree with this. 'Happy' does not here mean 'in a state of pleasure'. A fully successful bird does little more than the four f's (feed, fornicate, flee, fight).
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5865
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Happiness involves three things, of which the greatest is either wisdom, virtue, or pleasure [Aristotle]
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Full Idea:
To be happy, and to live the fine and divinely-happy life, would seem to reside in three things above all, ..for some say that wisdom is the greatest good, others virtue, others pleasure.
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From:
Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1214a30)
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A reaction:
Aristotle is well-known for his pluralist answer to this question: virtue is crucial, wisdom is perhaps the greatest of the virtues, and pleasure improves everything in life.
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