Meanderings On A Sunday Morning

It's Sunday, and that's a good day to think about ends. By ends I mean goals and objectives in the philosophical sense. Every action has an end, which depending on the actor may be an end that is intended (an intentional end), or an end that is simply associated with the action (an intrinsic end), or even an end that is unanticipated, i.e. a result that was not, or even could not be anticipated (an accidental end).

I was thinking this morning about what gives life meaning. Why do you care about your life? Are you in a good place? If you are, why? If you are not, why? Somewhere in the bible it says "Without vision the people perish" ... Proverbs 29:18 (Isn't the internet great for that sort of thing).

What exactly is "vision" in that sense but an end perceived and understood and motivational. Why do we do what we do? Aristotle says in the Nicomachean Ethics right from the get-go that there is a hierarchy of ends because some things are done on behalf of a larger vision so there are immediate ends that are subordinated to larger ends. The final end is the good because as Aristotle says in the first sentence: "Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim." And if there is a hierarchy of ends all of which aim for some good, then the root of the hierarchy is the highest good. We can go transcendental and say the highest good is The Good, and that The Good can only be God. That might be appropriate for a Sunday, but I'm not inclined to go there today. The highest end for Aristotle is happiness. It is a singularly unfortunate word in a hedonistic age like our own. For Aristotle does not mean pleasure at all but a kind of total fulfillment or satisfaction derived from knowing that you have done all things well.

A person that reaches this state is not someone merely smug and satisfied, but rather someone deeply motivated for the good and this is why Aristotle associates happiness with virtue or excellence. I think I'll leave you thinking about that. It's a good thing to think about on a lovely Sunday morning or any day for that matter.