1. Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia Discussion
Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia DiscussionAristotle’s notion of eudaimonia DiscussionRead
and think about the entire prompt before composing your first post. This discussion will
require you to have carefully read Chapter 5 of the textbook, as well as the assigned
portions of Aristotle’s (1931) Nicomachean Ethics.If you recall from Week 2/Chapter 3,
John Stuart Mill (2008) defines happiness as the experience of pleasure and the avoidance
of pain, which means that happiness is very much a matter of how I feel “on the inside”.
However, Aristotle (1931) holds a rather different view of happiness (or in his terms,
“eudaimonia”).One way that we think about this difference is to conduct a “thought
experiment” in which we imagine that we have certain “inner” experiences, but outwardly
things are quite different. One such thought experiment is provided by the philosopher
Robert Nozick in his description of the “experience machine”:“Suppose there were an
experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Superduper
neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were
writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you
would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain…Of course, while in the
tank you won’t know that you’re there; you’ll think it’s actually happening…Would you plug
in? What else can matter to us, other than how our lives feel from the inside?” (Nozick,
1974, p. 43)ORDER NOW FOR CUSTOMIZED, PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPERSIn the course of
the week’s discussion, you will need to do the following (not necessarily in this
order):Engage with the text:Using at least one quote from the assigned texts, explain
Aristotle’s notion of eudaimonia. Then, discuss whether Aristotle would consider someone
hooked up to the experience machine to be “happy” in the sense captured by that notion of
eudaimonia.Reflect on yourself:If you had the chance to be permanently hooked up to the
experience machine, would you do it? Explain your choice. For example, if you would not
hook up, you may discuss the kinds of goods or aims that would be lost by hooking up, or
you may discuss the core, essential features of your life (or of human life in general) that are
undermined by being in such a state. Reflect on human life:Based on your response, do you
think that we can describe aspects of a telos (in Aristotle’s sense) that applies to humanity
in general, or at least most people? Correspondingly, could there be a difference between
feeling happy and being happy? Do you think that people can be wrong about happiness?
(Notice that this isn’t asking whether there are different ways in which people can find
happiness; it’s asking whether some of those ways could be mistaken.)Discuss with your
peers:According to virtue ethics, reflecting on the aims and goods essential to human
2. flourishing (if there are any) can help us understand the virtues we need to fulfill those and
the vices that would be detrimental, as well as the corresponding kinds of choices and
behaviors. Reflect with your peers on what their account reveals about the virtuous life,
whether that conflicts with some of the values and choices common in society, your career
field, family, or other social atmospheres.Make sure to respond to at least 3 peersMake sure
to include citations and references as support for your critical
assessmentReferencesAristotle. (1931). Nicomachean ethics.(W. D. Ross, Trans.).
http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/nicomachaen.htmlMill, J. S. (2008). Utilitarianism, In J.
Bennett (Ed. & Rev.) Early Modern Philosophy.
http://www.earlymoderntexts.com/pdfs/mill1863.pdfAristotle’s notion of eudaimonia
Discussion
