PHI 205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: The Dealer, Nicomachean Ethics, Unconditionally
Document Summary
Aristotle: virtue: kant criticizes this (subtly does not criticize it outright, does not believe that virtue is the highest good or believe that it is. The highest good: independently good, in and of itself, if anything else is good, it is merely relative good. Happiness: happiness is a relative good, according to aristotle. Living according to reason: living in accordance to rationality, this is virtue, which aristotle believes is the highest good. Courage, resoluteness, perseverance, etc: gifts of fortune. All of the examples of the conditional goods are virtues (intelligence, courage, power : practical virtues. Kant does not believe that virtues are unconditionally good, and thus these talents of mind, qualities of temperament, and gifts of fortune are not able to be unconditionally good . Why can"t they be unconditional: because these qualities aren"t inherently good, there are conditions under which having what aristotle calls virtues is not a good thing, people sometimes use them for harmful purposes.
