Essaybay stars are the easiest and quickest way to compare writers on EssayBay! The higher the rating a user gets, and the more constant that high rating is, the
more stars they will recieve, making it easy for you to see which writers turn out top quality work every time!
EssayBay - Buy term papers and custom essays direct from writers!
Note:
This total includes references and bibliography.
Deadline
December
You Must Be Logged In To View Projects!
To view the full project, or to create projects, you must be logged in. To login as a freelancer click Here. To login as a buyer, click Here.
Description
All three philosophers we read this semester argued that there was stability or permanence
in moral perfection. Plato, through the character of Socrates, argued that “no evil can
happen to a good man, either in life or after death” (Apology, p. 40, lines 35-36). Aristotle
made a very similar claim, saying that “no happy man can become miserable” (Nicomachean
Ethics, p. 221, lines 3-4).
When Aquinas makes point about the stability of happiness (even referring to
Aristotle), he uses it to argue a further point, that happiness cannot be achieved in this life,
since “in this life there is no sure stability” (Summa Contra Gentiles, p. 329, lines 18-26).
This point nicely harmonizes with Aquinas’s Christian notion of the beatific vision—his
faith in an afterlife and the possibility of eternal communion with God.
However, Aquinas clearly connects this not just to his faith but to established
philosophical wisdom, arguing that on the basis of rational inquiry alone Aristotle himself
did not think that happiness could be fully attained in this life. As Aquinas points out,
when Aristotle, in Book I of Nicomachean Ethics, says we can call living human beings
happy, he adds that they are “happy men” (221.26). Aquinas interprets this short remark as
meaning that in this life happiness “in its perfect [or complete] form” is not possible, but
we may in this life have an incomplete share of, or “participation,” in happiness (330.36-
38). In other words, according to Aquinas, Aristotle’s position is that those living people
we call happy are only “happy as men, as though not attaining happiness simply [i.e. not
really attaining true happiness], but in a human way [i.e. only attaining happiness in
limited, mortal manner]” (330.1-2).
Some scholars have dismissed Aquinas’s interpretation of Aristotle’s very brief
remark as overly influenced by Aquinas’s Christian faith. But Aquinas makes reference to
another, longer passage in support of the interpretation that, for Aristotle, happiness
cannot be achieved in this life: Nicomachean Ethics, Book X, chapter 7 (for Aquinas’s
mention of this passage, see 331.26-29). This is where your task comes in. Your
assignment is to:
(a) explain what Aristotle says about achieving happiness through contemplation
in Nicomachean Ethics, Book X, chapters 7 & 8 (pp. 248-253); and in doing so
(b) either defend or criticize Aquinas’s interpretation according to which Aristotle
regards happiness as unobtainable in this life.
Note: This assignment is an opportunity to practice the philosophical skills of
interpretation and argument. You must explain a portion of text, in such a way that you can
defend a thesis. Before writing, you will need to read and interpret the text carefully, discern
what passages are most relevant to the question, and determine what position you will take on
the question (for or against Aquinas’s interpretation of Aristotle). In writing, you will need
to organize your paper in such a way that you clearly and accurately expound the most relevant
passages in Aristotle’s text, using these passages to support your answer to the question of
whether Aristotle thinks happiness can be achieved in this life.
You will not be graded on what thesis you defend, but on how well you defend it by
articulating Aristotle’s views.
Do not present your argument as if it is “only an opinion” (what you happen to think or feel
about something); instead, defend the truth of your judgment, by appealing to what you know
and explaining your interpretation of what Aristotle in fact says.
Your paper will be evaluated for thoroughness, clarity, organization, and argument. For
more detailed description of evaluation standards, see attached checklist.
Length: 1200-1500 words (about 4-5 pages, double spaced, with standard margins and font
size).
EssayBay Stars
BUYERS AREA...
WRITERS AREA...
)