Nicomachean Ethics is Aristotle’s great work in moral philosophy, addressing such concepts as the good life, virtue, weakness of will and moral responsibility. In Nicomachean Ethics Book I chapter 7, Aristotle gives a thorough examination of ‘the good’ and just what it consists of. Along the way he discusses the relationship between happiness and the human function and the nature of virtue. Is final conclusion, that the human good is “the soul’s activity that expresses virtue”1 is a bit obscure, but his preceding argument is very thoroughly constructed.
Aristotle begins his inquiry into ‘the good’ by proposing that the good is “that for the sake of which the other things are done.”2 Ends pursued for some further purpose, such as wealth, can be said to be incomplete, because they have not yet reached the final goal. And there must be some final goal, or else action would be pointless—as Aristotle points out in chapter 2, if something is not sought for its own......
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