The Best is the Telos: An Argument in Eudemian Ethics 1.8

Abstract

Abstract This paper examines Aristotle’s argument in Eudemian Ethics 1.8 that eudaimonia, the best practicable good, is the telos of the practicable goods. Aristotle defers to the Platonists in thinking that the best practicable good is the first practicable good and the cause of the other practicable goods’ goodness (though he also has his own reason for thinking this). But, on his view, it is the telos of the practicable goods that has these two properties. Aristotle’s argument for this latter claim is supported by his view, more fully discussed in Posterior Analytics 2.11, of how final causes explain normative facts.