In Defense of an Alternative View of the Foundation of Aristotle's Moral Theory

Abstract

In opening chapters of Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle identifies what he refers to as the best good or the human good with happiness (eudaimonia). He takes happiness to be some sort of ultimate end of human conduct, and on basis of this idea, he proceeds to develop his moral theory. This much is uncontroversial. However, interpreters have despaired over passages where Aristotle invokes this notion of an ultimate end. For it has been thought that in these passages Aristotle appears to ground his moral philosophy on a patently indefensible psychological generalization.' The psychological generalization, in its strongest form, is proposition that every person does whatever he does with aim of promoting his own happiness. This doctrine, which we may call Strong Psychological Eudaimonism, is not only mistaken in its own right,2 it is also inconsistent with other views Aristotle espouses in Ethics.' Conse-