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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which looks at the concepts of excellence and happiness in the Nicomachean Ethics, in relation to the Doctrine of the Mean, and considers how these can be applied in one's everyday life. Bibliography lists 2 sources
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLdocmean.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
concepts of eudaemonia (generally translated as happiness, although the word also carries connotations of fulfilment and right living) and excellence, or virtue (ar?te) in relation to the Doctrine of the
Mean. He asserts that excellence is concerned both with the form and the function of a thing: "We may safely assert that the virtue (aret? )or excellence of a thing
causes that thing both to be itself in good condition and to perform its function well" (Nicomachean Ethics, II: 6-7).
Excellence is what the object has both to be itself, and to be good at what it is supposed to
do: "So the proper excellence of the horse makes a horse what it should be, and makes it good at running, and carrying his rider, and standing a charge" (Nicomachean
Ethics, II: 6-7). Happiness is achieved through
the pursuit of excellence, since this means that the individual is striving for the best physical and psychological condition they can, and also fulfilling their proper function as a human
being within society: "the proper excellence or virtue of man will be the habit or trained faculty that makes a man good and makes him perform his function well" (Nicomachean
Ethics, II: 6-7). In order to achieve this,
one looks towards practising the Doctrine of the Mean, which states that one should aim for a middle ground between privation and excess: the centre point between too much, and
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