What We Can All Learn From Aristotle

Aristotle is by far my most favourite Ancient Greek Philosopher.

This is an examination of his account on well-being and the good life as presented in the Nicomachean Ethics and Politics.

For most, the highest good in life lies in the pursuit of wealth, honour, or satisfaction of bodily pleasure. Aristotle argued all of the following were intrinsically deficient!

He argued that the highest good in life must be found in something that is consistent with the maximization of our faculties as human beings.

He started diving deeply into this subject by studying the characteristics of living things.

Consequently realizing - what separates humans from animals and plants is our capacity for reason.

Hence, a life aimed solely at the satisfaction of bodily pleasure, must?not be fit?for human beings but very much so?fit for a pig or a cattle!

This ability to engage in rationalization, he further went on to rate as being?"God-Like."

To Aristotle, a life not committed to the pursuit of our intellectual faculty development - He plainly regarded as -?"missing out on what it means to be human."

The good life, therefore, must include contemplation and learning or acquisition of the intellectual virtues.