It is evident that this conception of an End of all Ends is what Kant would call an Idea — nothing precisely conformable to it, in its full extent, can ever exist in reality. No individual has ever been found, or ever will be found, with a mind so trained as to make every separate and particular desire subservient to some general preconceived End however comprehensive. But it is equally certain that this subordination of Ends one to another is a process performed to a greater or less degree in every one’s mind, even in that of the rudest savage. No man can blindly and undistinguishingly follow every immediate impulse: the impulse, whatever it be, when it arises, must be considered more or less as it bears upon other pursuits and other objects of desire. This is an indispensable condition even of the most imperfect form of social existence. In civilized society, we find the process carried very far indeed in the minds of the greater number of individuals. Every man has in his view certain leading Ends, such as the maintenance of his proper position in society, the acquisition of professional success, the making of his fortune, the prosecution of his studies, &c., each of which is essentially paramount and architectonic, and with reference to which a thousand other ends are simply subordinate and ministerial. Suppose this process to be pushed farther, and you arrive at the idea of an End still more comprehensive, embracing every other end which the individual can aspire to, and forming the central point of an all-comprehensive scheme of life. Such a maximum, never actually attainable, but constantly approachable, in reality, forms the Object of Ethical Science. Quorsum victuri gignimur!
What is the Supreme Good — the End of all Ends? How are we to determine wherein it consists, or by what means it is to be attained — at least, as nearly attained as the limitations of human condition permit? Ethical Science professes to point out what the end ought to be — Ethical precepts are suggestions for making the closest approaches to it which are practicable. Even to understand what the end is, is a considerable acquisition: since we thus know the precise point to aim at, even if we cannot hit it (i. 2).
The approaches which different men make towards forming this idea, of an End of Ends or of a Supreme Good, differ most essentially: although there seems a verbal agreement between them. Every man speaks of Happiness as his End of Ends (ὀνόματι ὁμολογεῖται, i. 4): he wishes to live well or to do well, which he considers to be the same as being happy. But men disagree exceedingly in their opinions as to that which constitutes happiness: nay the same man sometimes places it in one thing, sometimes in another — in health or in riches, according as he happens to be sick or poor.
There are however three grand divisions, in one or other of which the opinions of the great majority of mankind may be distributed. Some think that happiness consists in a life of bodily pleasure (βίος ἀπολαυστικός): others, in a life of successful political action or ambition (βίος πολιτικός): others again, in a life of speculative study and the acquisition of knowledge (βίος θεωρητικός). He will not consent to number the life of the (χρηματιστὴς) money-maker among them because he attains his end at the expense of other people and by a force upon their inclinations (this at least seems the sense of the words — ὁ γὰρ χρηματιστὴς βίαιός τίς ἐστι), and because wealth can never be the good, seeing that it is merely useful for the sake of ulterior objects.
(The reason which Aristotle gives for discarding from his catalogue the life of the money-seeker, while he admits that of the pleasure-seeker and the honour-seeker, appears a very inconclusive one. He believed them to be all equally mistaken in reference to real happiness: the two last just as much as the first: and certainly, if we look to prevalence in the world and number of adherents, the creed of the first is at least equal to that of the two last.)
The first of the three is the opinion of the mass, countenanced by many Sovereigns such as Sardanapalus — it is more suitable to animals than to men, in the judgment of Aristotle (i. 5).
Honour and glory — the reward of political ambition, cannot be the sovereign good, because it is a possession which the person honoured can never be sure of retaining: for it depends more upon the persons by whom he is honoured than upon himself, while the ideas which we form of the sovereign good suppose it to be something intimately belonging to us and hard to be withdrawn (i. 5). Moreover those who aspire to honour, desire it not so much on its own account as in order that they may have confidence in their own virtue: so that it seems even in their estimation as if virtue were the higher aim of the two. But even virtue itself (meaning thereby the simple possession of virtue as distinguished from the active habitual exercise of it) cannot be the sovereign good: for the virtuous man may pass his life in sleep or in inaction — or he may encounter intolerable suffering and calamity (i. 5).
Besides, Happiness as we conceive it, is an End perfect, final, comprehensive and all-sufficient — an end which we always seek on its own account and never with a view to anything ulterior. But neither honour, nor pleasure, nor intelligence, nor virtue, deserves these epithets: each is an end special, insufficient, and not final — for each is sought partly indeed on its own account, but partly also on account of its tendency to promote what we suppose to be our happiness (i. 7). The latter is the only end always sought exclusively for itself: including as it always does and must do, the happiness of a man’s relatives, his children and his countrymen, or of all with whom he has sympathies; so that if attained, it would render his life desirable and wanting for nothing — ὃ μονούμενον, αἱρετὸν ποιεῖ τὸν βίον, καὶ μηδενὸς ἐνδεᾶ (i. 7).
The remark which Aristotle here makes in respect to the final aim or happiness of an individual — viz., that it includes the happiness of his family and his countrymen and of those with whom he has sympathies — deserves careful attention. It shows at once the largeness and the benevolence of his conceptions. We arrive thus at the same end as that proposed by political science — the happiness of the community: but we reach it by a different road, starting from the point of view of the individual citizen.
Having shown that this Happiness, which is “our being’s end and aim,â€� does not consist in any special acquisition such as pleasure, or glory, or intelligence, or virtue, Aristotle adopts a different method to show wherein it does consist. Every artist and every professional man (he says — i. 7), the painter, the musician, &c., has his peculiar business to do, and the Good of each artist consists in doing his business well and appropriately. Each separate portion of man, the eye, the hand and the foot, has its peculiar function: and in analogy with both these, man as such has his business and function, in the complete performance of which human Good consists. What is the business and peculiar function of Man, as Man? Not simply Life, for that he has in common with the entire vegetable and animal world: nor a mere sensitive Life, for that he has in common with all Animals: it must be something which he has, apart both from plants and animals — viz., an active life in conformity with reason (πρακτική τις τοῦ λόγον ἔχοντος); or the exercise of Reason as a directing and superintending force, and the exercise of the appetites, passions, and capacities, in a manner conformable to Reason. This is the special and peculiar business of man: it is what every man performs either well or ill: and the virtue of a man is that whereby he is enabled to perform it well. The Supreme Good of humanity, therefore, consisting as it does in the due performance of this special business of man, is to be found in the virtuous activity of our rational and appetitive soul: assuming always a life of the ordinary length, without which no degree of mental perfection would suffice to attain the object. The full position will then stand thus — “Happiness, or the highest good of a human being, consists in the working of the soul and in a course of action, pursuant to reason and conformable to virtue, throughout the full continuance of life.â€�