Welcome to Unit 2! This is the first part of Lecture 5, where we begin our study of Aristotle’s theory of the good life. This video discusses the historical context for Aristotle’s life and views, along with some background information on Greco-Roman approaches to ethical theory. We then move on to Aristotle’s disagreement with Plato on the nature of the good life and explore how Aristotle’s approach to metaphysical questions influences his approach to ethics.
This is the second part of Lecture 5, where we examine Aristotle’s theory of the good life in further detail, beginning where we left off in the last video with the question of a final end or ultimate goal for all human beings. This video discusses the way Aristotle identifies our final end with happiness or eudaimonia, and how he expands on this view with his “function argument” in Book 1 of the Nicomachean Ethics.
We continue exploring Aristotle’s account of the good life in this first part of Lecture 6. After a recap of key points from the last lecture, we then move on to Aristotle’s views on the fragility of the good life, the need for politics and external goods in living well, the importance of habituation in developing virtue, and Aristotle’s particularist approach to ethical theory.
This second part of Lecture 6 concludes Unit 2 and our study of Aristotle. In this video we examine the finer details of Aristotle’s ethical thought by considering his views on the various elements of virtue and how we develop a virtuous character. We’ll focus here on the role of pleasure in virtuous action, Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean, the importance of volition in acting virtuously, and the centrality of phronēsis or practical wisdom as a master virtue. We end this video with a discussion of Aristotle’s views on the significance of friendships in a good life and blindspots/challenges for Aristotle’s ethical theory.
