September 9

In addition to means/ends analysis, many philosophers hold that there is some ultimate “final good” that our actions aim at.  We will introduce this notion with a short text from Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, wherein he argues that the final end or final good is eudaimonia, a term translated variously as “happiness” or “flourishing”, and passages from Plato.  We will then test theory against our own experiences as these have become elucidated in the Desire Exercises. Part of the period will also be spent learning about philosophical arguments and the terminology used to talk about them.