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The activity of happiness in Aristotle's Ethics.

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From: The Review of Metaphysics
Date: 20030601
Author:Gurtler, Gary M.

I

THERE HAS BEEN A LONGSTANDING DEBATE about the relation of virtue and happiness in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle seems to have two contradictory positions. One position is found in book 1, chapter 7, where happiness is the highest good, an activity of soul in conformity with virtue. In context, this seems to indicate human virtue as a whole, involving both moral and intellectual virtues. The other position occurs much later in book 10, chapters 6-8, where happiness is identified with wisdom alone. This later context seems to posit an opposition between a supreme ...

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