RE: We should take the Moral Highground
April 5, 2012 at 2:32 pm
(This post was last modified: April 5, 2012 at 2:33 pm by Neo-Scholastic.)
(April 5, 2012 at 2:10 pm)Tempus Wrote: I'm not familiar with Aristotle at all (I know who he is though of course). Did he acknowledge that the thing that 'ought' to be done (pursuing happiness) was an assumption? If so, I agree. If he thought it was some sort of self-evident truth I totally disagree.To paraphrase the Nichomachean Ethics, "Happiness is the good that all men desire." From there he goes on to give examples showing that the pursuit of pleasures, money and fame are sought because people believe those things will make them happy. His general approach is empirical, but you still get the impression that Aristotle thought of it as self-evident. After all who would want to be unhappy.