Blog 7

                In the articles about “Nicomachean Ethics,” Aristotle is trying to both answer and explain the question about what is considered good, what does good mean in terms of both internal goods and external goods, and how are these goods determined to be good based on what they are meant to be gained from a practice. He points out that good is different for each category of a practice, such as in medicine, in war strategy, and in the arts. Each of these goods are meant to be the end goal of each practice that a person is meant to reach for, often such things are pleasure, intelligence, honor, or wisdom. The main platform and in essence a universal good that Aristotle mentions is happiness; a happiness that is gained not only through one’s practice but also by spreading this happiness with others. Even though this is very lovely image and works well with what Aristotle later argues that a person that is happy from his practice will continue to do his practice in his best ability and will be able to persevere through difficult events, I do not entirely agree with his sentiment. Happiness is an important internal good that is shared in all jobs and practices, I do not think that it will always produce good effort from people and be gained solely from the other goods that Aristotle mentioned, mainly wisdom and betterment of virtues. Many people believe that the only form of happiness they will gain is through external goods and therefore will devote their energy to work towards these external goods instead of the internal. This could potentially produce a self-seeking motif in people and lead them to forget the importance of happiness in others. For example, someone who fakes data in a science lab that was developing a new pharmaceutical may gain happiness from the money they will generate, but this lack of true effort will cause many to be hurt. One could argue that Franklin and Darwin follow along the notion that Aristotle is making, yet I believe that the end good they were reaching for was above whether or not they were happy. There were many instances along their journeys where they were attaining the internal goods they were seeking yet were not happy. Personally, I think the universal good of practices relates more towards a higher purpose than happiness.

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