The Final End in Aristotle

Royal Institute of Philosophy
The Final Good in Aristotle's Ethics

Author(s): W. F. R. Hardie
Source: Philosophy, Vol. 40, No. 154 (Oct., 1965), pp. 277-295
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Institute of Philosophy
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THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL INSTITUTE
OF PHILOSOPHY
VOL. XL. No. 154 OCTOBER 1965
THE FINAL GOOD IN ARISTOTLE'S ETHICS
W. F. R. HARDIE
I
ARISTOTLE maintains that every man has, or should have, a single
end
(TreXo),
a target at which he aims. The doctrine is stated in
E.N. I 2. 'If, then, there is some end of the things we do which we
desire for its own sake (everything else being desired for the sake of
this), and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something
else (for at that rate the process would go on to infinity, so that our
desire would be empty and vain), clearly this must be the good and
the chief good. Will not the knowledge of it, then, have a great
influence on life? Shall we not, like archers who have a mark to aim
at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?'" (1094a 18-24).
Aristotle does not here prove, nor need we understand him as claiming
to prove, that there is only one end which is desired for itself. He
points out correctly that, if there are objects which are desired but
not desired for themselves, there must be some object which is desired
for itself. The passage further suggests that, if there were one such
object and one only, this fact would be important and helpful for
the conduct of life.
II
The same doctrine is stated in E.E. A 2. But, whereas in the E.N.
the emphasis is on the concern of political science, statesmanship,
with the human good conceived as a single end, the E.E. speaks only
of the planning by the individual of his own life. 'Everyone who has
the power to live according to his own choice (wUpox/pea-ts) should
dwell on these points and set up for himself some object for the good
life to aim at, whether honour or reputation or wealth or culture, by
reference to which he will do all that he does, since not to have one's
life organised in view of some end is a sign of great folly. Now above
all we must first define to ourselves without hurry or carelessness in
'Here, and in quoting other passages, I have reproduced the Oxford translation.
I refer to the Nicomachean Ethics as E.N. and to the Eudemian Ethics as E.E.
A 277
PHILOSOPHY
which of our possessions the good life
consists, and what for men are
the conditions of its attainment' (1214b 6-14). Here, then, we are
told that lack of practical wisdom is shown in a man's failure to
plan and organise his life for the attainment of a single end. Aristotle
omits to say, but says elsewhere, that lack of
practical wisdom is
shown also in a man's preference for a bad or inadequate end, say
pleasure or money. We learn in E.N. VI 9 that the man of practical
wisdom has a true conception of the end which is best for him as well
as the capacity to plan effectively for its realisation (1 141b 31-33).
III
How far do men in fact plan their lives, as Aristotle
suggests they
should, for the attainment of a single end? As soon as we ask this
question, we see that there is a confusion in Aristotle's conception of
the single end. For the question confuses two questions: first, how
far do men plan their lives; and, secondly, so far as they do, how far
do they, in their plans, give a central and
dominating place to a
single desired object, money or fame or science? To both these
questions the answer that first suggests itself is that some men do
and some do not. Take the second question first. It is exceptional for
a life to be organised to achieve the satisfaction of one ruling passion.
If asked for examples we might think of Disraeli's political ambition
or of Henry James' self-dedication to the art of the novel. But
exceptional genius is not incompatible with a wide variety of interests.
It seems plain that very few men can be said, even roughly, to live
their lives under the domination of a single end. Consider now the
first question. How far do men plan their lives? Clearly some do so
who have no single dominant aim. It is possible to have a plan based
on priorities, or on equal consideration, as between a number of
objects. It is even possible to plan not to plan, to resolve never to
cross bridges in advance. Hobbes remarked that there is no
!finis
ultimus, utmost aim, nor summum bonum, greatest good, as is spoken
of in the books of the old moral philosophers.... Felicity is a con-
tinual progress of the desire, from one object to another, the attaining
of the former being still but the way to the latter' (Leviathan ch. xi).
But even such a progress may be planned, although the plan may
not be wise. Every man has, and knows that he has, a number of
independent desires, i.e. desires which are not dependent on other
desires in the way in which desire for a means is dependent on desire
for an end. Every man is capable, from time to time, of telling himself
that, if he pursues one particular object too ardently, he may lose or
imperil other objects also dear to him. So it may be argued that every
man capable, as all men are, of reflection is, even if only occasionally
and implicitly, a planner of his own life.
278
THE FINAL GOOD IN ARISTOTLE S ETHICS
IV
We can now distinguish the two conceptions which are confused or
conflated in Aristotle's exposition of the doctrine of the single end.
One of them is the conception of what might be called the inclusive
end. A man, reflecting on his various desires and interests, notes that
some mean more to him than others, that some are more, some less,
difficult and costly to achieve, that the attainment of one may, in
different degrees, promote or hinder the attainment of others. By
such reflection he is moved to plan to achieve at least his most
important objectives as fully as possible. The following of such a plan
is roughly what is sometimes meant
by the pursuit of happiness. The
desire for happiness, so understood, is the desire for the orderly and
harmonious gratification of desires. Aristotle
sometimes, when he
speaks of the final end, seems to be
fumbling for the idea of an
inclusive end, or comprehensive plan,
in this sense. Thus in E.N. I 2
he speaks of the end of politics as
'embracing' other ends (1094b
6-7). The aim of a science which is 'architectonic'
(1094a 26-27; cf.
E.N. VI 8, 1141b 24-26) is a second-order aim. Again in E.N. I 7
he says that happiness must be 'most desirable of all
things, without
being counted as one good thing among others since, if it were so
counted, it would be made more desirable
by
the addition of even
the least of goods . . .'
(1097b 16-20). Such considerations ought to
lead Aristotle to define happiness as a
secondary end, the full and
harmonious achievement of
primary ends. This is what he ought to
say. It is not what he
says.
His
explicit view, as
opposed to his
occasional insight, makes the
supreme end not inclusive but domin-
ant, the object of one prime desire, philosophy. This is so even when,
as in E.N. I 7, he has in mind
that, primafacie, there is not only one
final end: '. . . if there are more than
one, the most final of these will
be what we are
seeking' (1097a 30). Aristotle's mistake and confusion
are implicit in his formulation in E.E. A 2 of the
question in which
of our possessions does the
good
life consist (1214b 12-13). For to
put the question thus is to rule out the obvious and correct reply; that
the life which is best for a man cannot lie in gaining only one of his
objects at the cost of
losing
all the rest. This would be too high a price
to pay even for
philosophy.
V
The ambiguity which we have found in Aristotle's
conception of
the final good shows itself also in his
attempt to use the notion of a
'function' (epyOP) which is 'peculiar' to man as a clue to the definition
of happiness. The notion of function cannot be defended and should
not be pressed, since a man is not
designed
for a
purpose. The
notion which Aristotle in fact uses is that of the
specific nature of
279
PHILOSOPHY
man, the characteristics which primarily distinguish him from other
living things. This notion can be given a wider interpretation which
corresponds to the inclusive end or a narrower interpretation which
corresponds to the dominant end. In E.N. I 7, seeking what is
peculiar to man (1097b 33-4), Aristotle rejects first the life of
nutrition and growth and secondly the life of perception which is
common to 'the horse, the ox and every animal' (1098a 2, 3). What
remains is 'an active life of the element that has a rational principle'
(1098a 3-4). This expression need not, as commentators point out, be
understood as excluding theoretical activity. 'Action' can be used in
a wide sense, as in the Politics VII 3 (1325b 16-23), to include con-
templative thinking. But what the phrase specifies as the proper
function of man is clearly wider than theoretical activity and includes
activities which manifest practical intelligence and moral virtue.
But the narrower conception is suggested by a phrase used later in
the same chapter. 'The good for man turns out to be the activity of
soul in accordance with virtue, and if there are more than one virtue
in accordance with the best and most complete' (1098a 16-18). The
most complete virtue must be theoretical wisdom, although this is
not made clear in E.N. I.
VI
The doctrine that only in theoretical activity is man really happy
is stated and defended explicitly in Book X 7 and 8. Theoretical
reason, the divine element in man, more than anything else is man
(1 177b 27-28, 1178a 6-7). 'It would be strange, then, if he were to
choose not the life of his self but that of something else. And what
we said before will apply now; that which is proper to each thing is
by nature best and most pleasant for each thing' (1178a 3-6). Man
is truly human only when he is more than human, godlike. 'None
of the other animals is happy, since they in no way share in con-
templation' (1178b 27-28). This statement makes obvious the mistake
involved in the conception of the end as dominant rather than
inclusive. It is no doubt true that man is the only theoretical animal.
But the capacity of some men for theory is very small. And theory is
not the only activity in respect of which man is rational as no other
animal is rational. There is no logic which leads from the principle
that happiness is to be found in a way of living which is common
and peculiar to men to the narrow view of the final good as a
dominant end. What is common and peculiar to men is rationality
in a general sense, not theoretical insight which is a specialised way
of being rational. A man differs from other animals not primarily in
being a natural metaphysician, but rather in being able to plan his
life consciously for the attainment of an inclusive end.
280
VII
The confusion between an end which is final because it is inclusive
and an end which is final because it is supreme or dominant accounts
for much that critics have rightly found unsatisfactory in Aristotle's
account of the thought which leads to practical decisions. It is
connected with his failure to make explicit the fact that practical
thinking is not always or only the finding of means to ends. Thought
is needed also for the setting up of an inclusive end. But, as we have
seen, Aristotle fails to make explicit the concept of an inclusive end.
This inadequacy both confuses his statement in E.N. I 1 and 2 of
the relation of politics to subordinate arts and leads to his giving an
incomplete account of deliberation.
VIII
I have represented Aristotle's doctrine as primarily a doctrine
about the individual's pursuit of his own good, his own welfare
(E1P&XiyOvic).
But something should be said at this point about the
relation between the end of the individual and the 'greater and more
complete' end of the state. 'While it is worth while to attain the end
merely for one man, it is finer and more godlike to attain it for a
nation or for city-states' (E.N. I 2, 1094b 7-10). This does not mean
more than it says: if it is good that Smith should be happy, it is even
better that Brown and Robinson should be
happy
too.
Ix
What makes it inevitable that planning for the attainment of the
good for man should be political is the simple fact that a man needs
and desires social community with others. This is made clear in
E.N. I 7 where Aristotle says that the final good must be sufficient by
itself. 'Now by self-sufficient we do not mean that which is sufficient
for a man by himself,
for one who lives a solitary life, but also for
parents, children, wife and in general for his friends and fellow-
citizens, since man is born for citizenship' (1097b 7- 11). That
individual end-seeking is primary, that the state exists for its citizens,
is stated in Ch. 8 of E.N. VI, one of the books common to both
treatises. 'The man who knows and concerns himself with his own
interests is thought to have practical wisdom,
while politicians are
thought to be busybodies. . . . Yet perhaps one's own good cannot
exist without household management, nor without a form of govern-
ment' (1142a 1-10). The family and the state, and other forms of
association as well, are necessary for the full realisation of any man's
capacity for living well.
X
The statesman aims, to speak roughly, at the greatest happiness
of the greatest number. He finds his own happiness in bringing about
281
PHILOSOPHY
the happiness of others (E.N. X 7, 11 77b 14), especially, if Aristotle
is right, the happiness of those capable of theoretical activity. Speak-
ing in terms of the end as dominant Aristotle, in E.N. VI 13, sets a
limit to the authority of political wisdom. 'But again it is not supreme
over philosophic wisdom, i.e. over the superior part of us, any more
than the art of medicine is over health; for it does not use it but
provides for its coming into being; it issues orders, then, for its sake
but not to it' (1145a 6-9). This suggestion that science and philosophy
are insulated in principle from political interference cannot be
accepted. The statesman promotes science but also uses it, and may
have to restrict the resources to be made available for it. If the
secondary and inclusive end is the harmonisation and integration of
primary ends, no primary end can be sacrosanct. But, even if
Aristotle had held consistently the extravagant view that theoretical
activity is desired only for itself and is the only end desired for
itself, he would not have been right to conclude that there could be
no occasion for the political regulation of theoretical studies. For the
unrestricted pursuit of philosophy might hinder measures needed to
make an environment in which philosophy could flourish. It might
be necessary to order an astronomer to leave his observatory, or a
philosopher his school, in order that they should play their parts in
the state. Similarly the individual who plans his life so as to give as
large a place as possible to a single supremely desired activity must
be ready to restrain, not only desires which conflict with his ruling
passion, but the ruling passion itself when it is manifested in ways
which would frustrate its own object.
XI
In E.N. I 1 and 2 Aristotle expounds the doctrine that statesman-
ship has authority over the arts and sciences which fall under it, are
subordinate to it. An art, A, is under another art, B, if there is a
relation of means to end between A and B. If A is a productive art,
like bridle-making, its product may be used by a superior art,
riding. Riding is not a productive activity, but it falls under general-
ship in so far as generals use cavalry, and generalship in turn falls
under the art of the statesman, the art which is in the highest degree
architectonic (1094a 27, cf. VI 8, 1141b 23-25). Thus the man of
practical wisdom, the statesman or legislator, is compared by
Aristotle to a foreman, or clerk of the works, in charge of technicians
and workmen of various kinds, all engaged in building an observa-
tory to enable the man of theoretical wisdom to contemplate the
starry heavens. In the Magna Moralia the function of practical wisdom
is said to be like that of a steward whose business it is so to arrange
things that his master has leisure for his high vocation (A 34, 1198b
282
THE FINAL GOOD IN ARISTOTLE'S ETHICS
12-17). Perhaps the closest parallel to the function of the statesman
as conceived by Aristotle is the office of the Bursar in a college at
Oxford or Cambridge.
XII
This account of statesmanship as aiming at the exercise of theoreti-
cal wisdom by those capable of it is an extreme expression of the
conception of the end as dominant and not inclusive. The account,
as it stands, is a gross over-simplification of the facts. When he speaks
of a subordinate art as pursued 'for the sake of' a superordinate or
architectonic art (1094a 15-16), Aristotle should make explicit the
fact that the subordinate activity, in addition to serving other
objects, may be pursued for its own sake. Riding, for example, has
non-military uses and can be a source of enjoyment. Again two arts,
or two kinds of activity, may each be subordinate, in Aristotle's
sense, to the other. Riders use bridles, and bridle-makers may ride
to their work. The engineer uses techniques invented by the mathe-
matician, but also promotes the wealth and leisure in which pure
science can flourish. Aristotle does not fail to see and mention the
fact that an object may be desired both independently for itself and
dependently for its effects (E.N. I 6, 1097a 30-34). He was aware also
that theoretical activity is not the only kind of activity which is in-
dependently desired. But he evidently thought that an activity which
was never desired except for itself would be intrinsically desirable in a
higher degree than an activity which, in addition to being desired
for
itself,
was also useful. It is, so to say, beneath the dignity of the
most godlike activities that they should be useful. Aristotle is led in
this way, and also by other routes, to give a narrow and exclusive
account of the final good, to conceive of the supreme end as
dominant and not inclusive.
XIII
Aristotle describes deliberation, the thinking of the wise man, as a
process which starts from the conception of an end and works back,
in a direction which reverses the order of causality, to the discovery
of a means. Men do not, he asserts, deliberate about ends.
'They
assume the end and consider how and by what means it is to be
attained; and if it seems to be produced by several means they
consider by which it is most easily and best produced, while, if it is
achieved by one only, they consider how it will be achieved by this
and by what means this will be achieved, till they come to the first
cause, which in the order of discovery is last' (E.N. III 3, 1112b
15-20). Such an investigation is compared to the method of dis-
covering by analysis the solution of a geometrical problem. Again
in
283
PHILOSOPHY
VI 2 practical wisdom is said to be shown in finding means to a good
end. 'For the syllogisms which deal with acts to be done are things
which involve a starting-point, viz. "since the end, i.e. what is best,
is of such and such a nature" . . .' (1144a 31-33).
XIV
This is Aristotle's official account of deliberation. But here again,
as in his account of the relation between political science and sub-
ordinate sciences, a too narrow and rigid doctrine is to some extent
corrected elsewhere, although not explicitly, by the recognition of
facts which do not fit into the prescribed pattern. Joseph, in Essays
in Ancient and Modern Philosophy, pointed out that the process of
deciding between alternative means, by considering which is easiest
and best, involves deliberation which is not comparable to the
geometer's search (pp. 180-181). But he remarks that Aristotle does
not 'appear to see' this. What the passage suggests is that the agent
may have to consider the intrinsic goodness, or badness, of the pro-
posed means as well as its effectiveness in promoting a good end. A
less incidental admission that there is more in deliberation than the
finding of means is involved in Aristotle's account of 'mixed actions'
in E.N. III 1. Aristotle recognises that, if the means are discreditable,
the end may not be important enough to justify them. 'To endure the
greatest indignities for no noble end or for a trifling end is the mark
of an inferior person' (111Oa 22-23). 'It is difficult sometimes to
determine what should be chosen at what cost, and what should be
endured in return for what gain' (11 lOa 29-30). Alcmaeon's decision
to kill his mother, on his father's instruction, rather than face death
himself is given as an example of a patently wrong answer to a
question of this kind. This kind of deliberation is clearly not the
regressive or analytic discovery of means to a pre-conceived end.
It is rather the determination of an ideal pattern of behaviour, a
system of priorities, from which the agent is not prepared to depart.
It is what we described earlier as the setting up of an inclusive end.
It is a kind of practical thinking which Aristotle cannot have had in
his mind when he asserted in E.N. III 3 that 'we deliberate not about
ends but about means' (1 12b 1 1-12).
XV
I have argued that Aristotle's doctrine of the final human good is
vitiated by his representation of it as dominant rather than inclusive,
and that this mistake underlies his too narrow account of practical
thinking as the search for means. But to say that the final good is
inclusive is not to deny that within it there are certain dominant ends
corresponding to the major interests of developed human nature.
284
One of these major interests is the interest in theoretical sciences. Of
these, according to Aristotle, there are three; theology or first philo-
sophy, mathematics and physics (Metaphysics E 1, 1026a 18-19, cf.
E.N. VI 8, 1142a 16-18). His account of contemplation in the
Ethics, based on the doctrine of reason as the divine or godlike
element in man (E.N. X 7, 1177a 13-17; 8, 1178a 20-23), exalts the
first and makes only casual mention of the other two. Elsewhere, in
the De Partibus Animalium I 5, he admits that physics has attractions
which compensate for the relatively low status of the objects studied.
'The scanty conceptions to which we can attain of celestial things
give us, from their excellence, more pleasure than all our knowledge
of the world in which we live; just as a half-glimpse of persons that
we love is more delightful than a leisurely view of other things,
whatever their number and dimensions. On the other hand, in
certitude and in completeness our knowledge of terrestrial things
has the advantage. Moreover their greater nearness and affinity to us
balances somewhat the loftier interest of the heavenly things that are
the object of the higher philosophy' (644b 31-645a 4).
XVI
I cannot here discuss the theological doctrines which ledAristotle
to place 'the higher philosophy' on the summit of human felicity.
But there is an aspect of his account of the theoretic life which has an
immediate connection with my main topic. He remarks in E.N.
VII 14 that 'there is not only an activity of movement but an activity
of immobility, and pleasure is found more in rest than in movement'
(1154b 26-28). This doctrine that there is no 'movement' in theoreti-
cal contemplation, and the implication that its immobility is a mark
of its excellence, is determined primarily by Aristotle's conception
of the divine nature. The latest commentators on the E.N., Gauthier
and Jolif, say, with justification, that he here excludes discovery
from the contemplative life. 'On pourrait meme dire que l'ideal,
pour le contemplatif aristotelicien et cet ideal le Dieu d'Aristote le
realise-ce serait de ne jamais etudier et de ne jamais decouvrir..
(855-856). In E.N. X 7 we are told that 'philosophy is thought to
offer pleasures marvellous for their purity and their enduringness' and
that it is 'reasonable to suppose that those who know will pass their
time more pleasantly than those who enquire' (1177a 25-27). It is
not reasonable at all. It is a startling paradox. I shall now suggest
that Aristotle's apparent readiness to accept this paradox, like his
confusion between the dominant and the inclusive end, is to be
explained, at least in part, by his failure to give any explicit or
adequate analysis of the concept of end and means.
285
PHILOSOPHY
XVII
Aristotle states in E.N. I that an end may be either an activity
or the product of an activity. 'But a certain difference is to be
found among ends; some are activities, others are products apart
from the activities that produce them. Where there are ends apart
from the actions, it is the nature of the products to be better than the
activities' (1094a 3-6). The suggestion here is that, when an activity
leads to a desired result, as medicine produces health or ship-
building a ship or enquiry knowledge, the end-seeking activity is not
itself desired. As he says (untruly) in the Metaphysics, 'of the actions
which have a limit none is an end'( 0 6, 1048b 18). But an activity
which aims at producing a result may be an object either of aversion
or of indifference or of a positive desire which may be less or greater
than the desire for its product. It is necessary to distinguish between
'end' in the sense of a result intended and planned and 'end' in the
sense of a result, or expected result, which, in addition to being
intended and planned, is also desired for itself while the process of
reaching it is not. It is true that travel may be unattractive, but it
may also be more attractive than arrival. A golfer plays to win. But,
if he loses, he does not feel that his day has been wasted, that he has
laboured in vain, as he would if his only object in playing were to
win a prize or to mortify his opponent or just to win. Doing cross-
word puzzles may be a waste of time, but what makes it a waste of
time is not the fact that we rarely get one out. It would be a greater
waste of time if we never failed to finish them. In short, the fact that
an activity is progressive towards a planned result leaves quite open
the question whether it is the process or the result which is desired,
and, if both, which primarily. If Aristotle had seen and said this, he
might have found it more difficult than he does to suggest that the
pleasures of discovery are not an essential element in science as a
major human interest. Philosophy would be less attractive than it
is if only results mattered. God's perfection requires that his thinking
should be unprogressive. But men, who fall short of perfect simplicity,
need, to make them happy, the pleasures of solving problems and of
learning something new and of being surprised. For them the best
way of life leads, in the words of Meredith,
'through widening chambers of surprise to where
throbs rapture near an end that aye recedes'.
XVIII
We have seen that Aristotle's doctrine of the final human good
needs clarification in terms of a distinction between an end which is
inclusive, a plan of life, and an end which is dominant as the satis-
faction of theoretical curiosity may be dominant in the life of a
286
philosopher. No man has only one interest. Hence an end which is to
function as a target, as a criterion for deciding what to do and how to
live, must be inclusive. But some men have ruling passions. Hence
some inclusive ends will include a dominant end. I shall now try to
look more closely at these Aristotelian notions, and to suggest some
estimate of their relevance and value in moral philosophy.
XIX
It will be best to face at once and consider a natural and common
criticism of Aristotle; the criticism that his virtuous man is not moral
at all but a calculating egoist whose guiding principle is not duty but
prudence, Bishop Butler's 'cool self-love'. Aristotle is in good com-
pany as claiming that rationality is what makes a man ideally good.
But his considered view, apart from incidental insights, admits, it is
said, only the rationality of prudent self-interest and not the ration-
ality of moral principle. Thus Professor D. J. Allan, in The Philosophy
of Aristotle, tells us that Aristotle 'takes little or no account of the
motive of moral obligation' and that 'self-interest, more or less
enlightened, is assumed to be the motive of all conduct and choice'
(p. 189). Similarly the late Professor Field, a fair and sympathetic
critic of Aristotle, remarked that, whereas morality is 'essentially
unselfish', Aristotle's idea of the final end or good makes morality
'ultimately selfish' (Moral Theory, pp. 109, 111).
XX
When a man is described as selfish what is meant primarily is
that he is moved to act, more often and more strongly than most
men, by desires which are selfish. The word 'selfish' is also applied
to a disposition so to plan one's life as to give a larger place than is
usual or right to the gratification of selfish desires. But what is it for a
desire to be selfish? Professor Broad, in his essay 'Egoism as a theory
of human motives' (in Ethics and the History of Philosophy), makes an
important distinction between two main kinds of 'self-regarding'
desires. There are first desires which are 'self-confined', which a man
could have even if he were alone in the world, e.g. desires for certain
experiences, the desire to preserve his own life, the desire to feel
respect for himself. Secondly there are self-regarding desires which
nevertheless presuppose that a man is not alone in the world, e.g.
desires to own property, to assert or display oneself, to inspire affec-
tion. Broad further points out that desires which are 'other-regarding'
may also be 'self-referential', e.g. desires for the welfare of one's own
family, friends, school, college, club, nation.
287
PHILOSOPHY
XXI
A man might perhaps be called selfish if his other-regarding
motives were conspicuously and exclusively self-referential, if he
showed no interest in the welfare of anyone with whom he was not
personally connected. But usually 'selfish' refers to the prominence
of self-regarding motives, and different kinds of selfishness correspond
to different self-regarding desires. The word, being pejorative, is more
readily applied to the less reputable of the self-regarding desires.
Thus a man strongly addicted to the pursuit of his own pleasures
might be called selfish even if his other-regarding motives were not
conspicuously weak. A man whose ruling passion was science or
music would not naturally be described as selfish unless to convey
that there was in him a reprehensible absence or failure of other-
regarding motives, as shown, say, by his neglect of his family or of
his pupils.
XxII
The classification of desires which I have quoted from Broad
assumes that their nature is correctly represented by what we
ordinarily think and say about them. Primafacie some of our desires
are self-regarding; and, of the other-regarding desires, some are and
some are not self-referential. But there have been philosophers who
have questioned or denied the reality of these apparent differences.
One doctrine, psychological egoism, asserts in its most extreme form
that the only possible objects of a man's first-order independent
desires are experiences, occurrent states of his own consciousness.
Thus my desire to be liked is really a desire to know that I am liked;
and my desire that my children should be happy when I am dead is
really a desire for my present expectation that they will be happy.
The obvious criticism of this doctrine is that it is preposterous and
self-defeating: I must first desire popularity and the happiness of my
children if I am to find gratifying my thought that I am popular and
that my children will be happy. To most of us it seems that intro-
spective self-scrutiny supports the validity of this dialectic. We can,
therefore, reject psychological egoism. A fortiori we can reject
psychological hedonism which asserts that the only experiences which
can de independently desired are pleasures, feelings of enjoyment.
This further doctrine was stated as follows by the late Professor
Prichard. 'For the enjoyment of something which we enjoy, e.g. the
enjoyment of seeing a beautiful landscape, is related to the thing
we enjoy, not as a quality but as an effect, being something excited
by the thing we enjoy, so that, if it be said that we desire some
enjoyment for its own sake, the correct statement must be that we
desire the experience, e.g. the seeing of some beautiful landscape, for
288
the sake of the feeling of enjoyment which we think it will cause, this
feeling being really what we are desiring for its own sake' (Moral
Obligation, p. 116). Surely most of us would be inclined to say that we
can desire for its own sake 'the seeing of some beautiful landscape'
and that we do not detect a distinct 'feeling of enjoyment'.
XXIII
Was Aristotle a psychological egoist or a psychological hedonist?
A crisp answer would have been possible only if Aristotle had
explicitly formulated these doctrines as I have defined them. So far
as I can see, he did not do so even in his long, but not always lucid,
treatment of friendship and self-love in E.N. IX. This being so, he
cannot be classed as a psychological egoist in respect of his account
of first-order desires. When Aristotle confronts the fact of altruism,
he does not refuse to accept benevolent desires at their face value
(E.N. VIII 2, 1155b 31; 3, 1156b 9-10; 7, 1159a 8-12). But he shows
acuteness in detecting self-referential elements in benevolence. Thus
he compares the feelings of benefactors to beneficiaries with those of
parents for their children and of artists for their creations. 'For that
which they have treated well is their handiwork, and therefore they
love this more than the handiwork does its maker' (E.N. IX 7,
1167b 31-1168a 5).
XXIV
The nearest approach which Aristotle makes to the formulation
of psychological hedonism is, perhaps, in the following passage in
E.N. II 3. 'There being three objects of choice and three of avoid-
ance, the noble, the advantageous, the pleasant, and their contraries,
the base, the injurious, the painful, about all of these the good man
tends to go right and the bad man to go wrong, and especially about
pleasure; for this is common to the animals, and also it accompanies
all objects of choice; for even the noble and the advantageous appear
pleasant' (1104b 30-1105a 1). But there are passages in his discussion
of pleasure in E.N. X which show that, even if he had accepted
psychological egoism, he would not have accepted psychological
hedonism. 'And there are many things we should be keen about even
if they brought no pleasure, e.g. seeing, remembering, knowing,
possessing the virtues. If pleasures necessarily do accompany these,
that makes no odds; we should choose them even if no pleasure
resulted' (1174a 4-8). This reads like a direct repudiation of the
doctrine in my quotation from Prichard. In E.N. X 4 he asks, without
answering, the question whether we choose activity for the sake of the
attendant pleasure or vice versa ( 175a 18-21). The answer which his
doctrine requires is surely that neither alternative can be accepted,
289
PHILOSOPHY
since both the activity and the attendant pleasure are desired for their
own sake. But it is open to question whether, when we speak of a
state or activity, such as 'the seeing of some beautiful landscape',
as pleasant, we are referring to a feeling distinct from the state or
activity itself.
XXV
The charge against Aristotle that his morality is a morality of self-
interest is directed primarily against his doctrine of the final good,
the doctrine which I have interpreted as a conflation of the distinct
notions of the 'inclusive end' and the 'dominant end'. But the critic
may also wish to suggest that Aristotle overstates the efficacy of self-
regarding desires in the determination of human conduct. To this
the first answer might well be that it is not easy to overstate their
efficacy. The term 'self-regarding' applies, as we have
seen,
to a wide
variety of motives; and there is a 'self-referential' factor in the most
potent of the other-regarding motives. Altruism which is pure, not
in any way self-regarding or self-referential, is a rarity. The facts
support the assertion that man is a selfish animal. But the criticism
can be met directly. Aristotle does not ignore other-regarding motives.
Thus, while he points out that the philosopher, unlike those who
exercise practical virtue, does not need other men 'towards whom
and with whom he shall act', he admits that the pleasures of philo-
sophy are enhanced by interest in the work of colleagues. 'He perhaps
does better if he has fellow-workers, but still he is the most self-
sufficient' (E.N. X 7, 1177a 27-bl). When, in the E.E., Aristotle
speaks of philosophy as the service of God, he seems to imply that the
love of wisdom is not directed merely to the lover's own conscious
states (1249b 20). Again, in E.N. IX 8, he can attribute to the 'lover
of self' conduct which is, in the highest degree, altruistic and self-
sacrificing. 'For reason always chooses what is best for itself, and the
good man obeys his reason. It is true of the good man too that he
does many acts for the sake of his friends and his country, and, if
necessary, dies for them; for he will throw away both wealth and
honours and in general the goods that are objects of competition,
gaining for himself nobility (t) KXA 'V) ; since he would prefer a short
period of intense pleasure to a long one of mild enjoyment, a twelve-
month of noble life to many years of humdrum existence, and one
great and noble action to many trivial ones. Now those who die for
others doubtless attain this result; it is, therefore, a great prize that
they choose for themselves' (1169a 17-26).
XXVI
But it is not enough, if we are to do justice to the criticism that
Aristotle makes morality selfish, to quote this passage, or the
passage
290
in E.N. I 10 where Aristotle speaks of the shining beauty of the virtue
shown in bearing disasters which impair happiness (1 lOOb 30-33).
Such passages, it may be said, show Aristotle's moral sensibility and
moral insight. But the question can still be asked whether their
commendation of the ultimate self-sacrifice, and of endurance in
suffering, is consistent with Aristotle's doctrine of the final human
good. Perhaps he is speaking more consistently with his own con-
sidered views when, again in E.N. IX 8, he makes the suggestion (or
is it a joke?) that a man may show the finest self-sacrifice, the truest
love, by surrendering to his friend the opportunity of virtuous action
(1169a 33-4). Perhaps Aristotle's commendation of the surrender, in
a noble cause, of life itself needs to be
qualified,
from his own point
of view, as it was qualified by Oscar Wilde:
And yet, and yet
Those Christs that die upon the barricades,
God knows it I am with them, in some ways.
To this question I now turn. My answer must and can be brief.
XXVII
We have found two main elements in Aristotle's doctrine of the
final good for man. There is, first, the suggestion that, as he says in
E.E. A 2, it is a sign of 'great folly' not to 'have one's life organised
in view of some end'. Perhaps it would be better to say that it is
impossible not to live according to some plan, and that it is folly not
to try to make the plan a good one. The inevitability of a
plan arises
from the fact that a man both has, and knows that he has, a number
of desires and interests which can be
adopted
as motives either
casually and indiscriminately or in accordance with priorities
determined by the aim of living the kind of life which he thinks
proper for a man like himself. But in an agent naturally reflective
the omission to make such a plan is not completely undesigned: the
minimal plan is a plan not to plan. To this side of Aristotle's doctrine
I have applied the term 'inclusive end', inclusive because there is no
desire or interest which should not be regarded as a
candidate, how-
ever unpromising, for a
place in the pattern of life. Wisdom finds a
place even for folly. The second element which we have found in
Aristotle's doctrine is his own answer to the question what plan will
be followed by a man who is most fully a man, as high as a man can
get on the scale from beast to god. Aristotle's answer is that such a
man will make theoretical knowledge, his most godlike attribute, his
main object. At a lower level, as a man among men, he will find a
place for the happiness which comes from being a citizen, from
291
PHILOSOPHY
marriage and from the society of those who share his interests. 1 have
called this the doctrine of the dominant end. The question whether
Aristotle's doctrine of the final good can be reconciled with the
morality of altruism and self-sacrifice must be asked with reference
both to the inclusive end and to the dominant end.
XXVIII
To say that a man acts, or fails to act, with a view to an inclusive
end is to say nothing at all about the comparative degrees of import-
ance which he will ascribe to his various aims. His devotion to his
own good, in the sense of his inclusive end, need not require him to
prefer self-regarding desires to other-regarding desires, or one kind of
self-regarding desire to another. All desires have to be considered
impartially as candidates for places in the inclusive plan. To aim at a
long life in which pleasures, so far as possible, are enjoyed and pains
avoided it is a possible plan, but not the only possible plan. That a
man seeks an inclusive end leaves open the question whether he is an
egoist or an altruist, selfish or unselfish in the popular sense.'
XXIX
While a man seeking his inclusive end need not be selfish, he can
be described as self-centred in at least three different ways. First and
trivially his desire to follow his inclusive plan is his own desire; it is
self-owned. Secondly, a man can think of a plan as being for his own
good only if he thinks about himself, thinks of himself as the one
owner of many desires. His second-order desire for his own good is
self-reflective. Thirdly, this second-order desire, being a desire
about desires, an interest in interests, can be gratified only through
the gratification of his first-order desires. Even the martyr plans to
do what he wants to do. We can express this by saying that the
pursuit of the final good is self-indulging as well as self-reflective. But
'self-indulgence' as applied to a way of life in which pleasures may be
despised and safety put last carries no pejorative sense. That action in
pursuit of an inclusive end is self-centred in these ways does not mean
that the agent is self-regarding or self-seeking in any sense incon-
sistent with the most heroic or saintly self-sacrifice.
1I owe this point, and less directly much else in my discussion of the criticism of
Aristotle's ethical system as egoistic, to Professor C. A. Campbell's British Academy
Lecture (1948), 'Moral Intuition and the Principle of Self-Realisation' (especially
pp. 17-25). Professor Campbell's lecture discusses the ethical theory of T. H.
Green and F. H. Bradley, and I do not know whether he would think of his
arguments as being relevant to the interpretation of Aristotle. But I have found his
defence of 'self-realisation' as a moral principle helpful in my attempt to separate
the strands of thought in Aristotle's doctrine of the final good.
292
XXX
To the question whether the pursuit of the human good, under-
stood in terms of Aristotle's conception of the dominant end, can be
reconciled with the morality of altruism, and in particular the
extreme altruism of the man who gives his life for his friends or his
country, a different answer must be given. Here reconciliation is not
possible. In order to see this it is necessary only to reflect on
Aristotle's definition in E.N. I 7 of the dominant end, which he calls
happiness, and to compare this definition with what is said about
the self-love of the man who nobly gives up his own life. 'Human
good turns out to be activity of soul in accordance with virtue, and
if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and
most complete. But we must add "in a complete life". For one
swallow does not make a summer nor does one day; and so too one
day or a short time does not make a man blessed and happy' (1098a
16-20). How then can the man who, to gain nobility (To KOCXOV) for
himself,
gives his life for his friends or his country be said to achieve
happiness? Aristotle's answer, as we have seen, is that such a man
prefers 'a short period of intense pleasure to a long one of mild
enjoyment, a twelvemonth of noble life to many years of humdrum
existence, and one great and noble action to many trivial ones'
(1 169a 22-25). But the scales are being loaded. For why should it be
supposed that the man who declines to live the final, if crowded, hour
of glorious life will survive to gain only 'mild' enjoyments and a
'humdrum' or 'trivial' existence? If such existence is, or seems, hum-
drum because the 'intense pleasure' of self-sacrifice has been missed,
then Aristotle's thought here is circular and self-stultifying. The
intensity of the brief encounter, it is suggested, is such that by con-
trast the remainder of life would be humdrum. But, unless the
alternative would be humdrum in its own right, the encounter
would not be intense enough to compensate for the curtailment of
life and happiness. A 'complete life' either is, or is not, a necessary
condition of happiness. Aristotle as a theorist cannot justify the
admiration which, as a man, he no doubt feels for the 'one great and
noble action'. Confronted with the facts he would have to admit
that the man who, whether by good fortune or design, survives a
revolution or a war may live to experience intense enjoyments and to
perform activities in accordance with the best and most complete
virtue. He may become a professor of philosophy or at least a prime
minister. We must conclude, therefore, that Professor Field was right:
the doctrine of the good for man, as developed by Aristotle in his
account of the dominant end, does make morality 'ultimately
selfish' (Moral Theory, pp. 109, 111).
B 293
PHILOSOPHY
XXXI
Aristotle offers us in his Ethics a handbook on how to be happy
though human. To some it may seem that a treatise on conduct with
an aim so practical and so prudential can do little to clarify the
concepts with which moral philosophy is mainly concerned, the
concepts of duty and of moral worth. 'He takes little or no account',
Professor Allan tells us, 'of the motive of moral obligation' (The
Philosophy of Aristotle, p. 189). Perhaps not. The topic is too large for a
concluding paragraph. Certainly most men feel moral obligations
which cannot be subsumed under the obligation, if there is one, to
pursue their own happiness by planning for the orderly satisfaction
of their self-regarding desires. But 'obligation' and 'duty' are words
with many meanings, meanings variously related to the concept of
moral worth. Perhaps Aristotle is not wrong, as he is not alone, in
connecting the concept of moral worth with the fact that man is not
just the plaything of circumstance and his own irrational nature
but also the responsible planner of his own life. This aspect of
Aristotle's teaching is what I have called his doctrine of the 'inclusive
end', and I have argued that there is no necessity for the doctrine
to be specified and developed as a recommendation of calculated
egoism. Aristotle himself, as we have seen, does not adhere con-
sistently to his own exaltation of self-regarding aims. He is, indeed,
always ready to notice facts which are awkward for his own theories.
Thus in E.N. I 10 he recognises that the actual achievement of
happiness, virtuous activity, is largely outside a man's control. 'A
multitude of great events if they turn out well will make life happier
. . .while if they turn out ill they crush and maim happiness; for
they both bring pain with them and hinder many activities' (1 OOb
25-30). He adds that, even when disaster strikes, 'nobility shines
through, when a man bears with resignation many great misfortunes,
not through insensibility to pain but through nobility and greatness
of soul' (11OOb 30-33). 'The man who is truly good and wise',
he goes on to say, 'bears all the chances of life becomingly and always
makes the best of circumstances as a good shoemaker makes the best
shoes out of the hides that are given to him' (1 lOOb 35-1 lOla 5). The
suggestion of this passage is that a man's worth lies not in his actual
achievement, which may be frustrated by factors outside his own
control, but in his striving towards achievement. In an earlier chapter
(5) of E.N. I he speaks of the good as something which 'we divine to
be proper to a man and not easily taken from him' (1095b 25-26).
Aristotle's doctrine of the final good is a doctrine about what is
'proper' to a man, the power to reflect on his own abilities and desires
and to conceive and choose for himself a satisfactory way of life.
What 'cannot be taken from him' is his power to keep on trying
294
to live up to such a conception.
Self-respect,
thus interpreted, is a
principle of duty. If moral philosophy must seek one comprehensive
principle of duty, what other principle has a stronger claim to be
regarded as the principle of duty?
Corpus Christi College,
Oxford.
295

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The Final Good in Aristotle's Ethics

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