{"id":23,"date":"2021-03-22T12:36:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T12:36:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/chapter\/2-the-end-is-the-good-our-subject-is-this-and-its-science-politics\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T00:46:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T00:46:22","slug":"2-the-end-is-the-good-our-subject-is-this-and-its-science-politics","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/chapter\/2-the-end-is-the-good-our-subject-is-this-and-its-science-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Section 2: The highest good and the kind of knowledge concerned with the human good"},"content":{"raw":"

The highest good of human life and the importance of knowing it<\/h3>\r\nIf there is some goal of our actions, which we pursue for its own sake (everything else being pursued for the sake of this goal), and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else (since if that were the case, the process would go on without limit, [20]<\/sub> so that our desire would be empty and vain), clearly this goal must be the good, that is, the highest good.\r\n\r\nWon't knowing this highest good have a great influence on life? Won't we, like archers who have a target to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?\r\n

Political wisdom and ethics are the disciplines that study the highest good of human life<\/h3>\r\nIf so, [25]<\/sub> we must try, in outline at least, to determine what this highest good is, and to which kinds of knowledge or to what abilities it belongs. It would seem to belong to the most authoritative and architectonic discipline. And political wisdom or the art of the statesman appears to be of this nature; for it is political wisdom that ordains which kinds of knowledge should be studied in a state, and which each class of citizens should learn them and up to what point they should learn them. [1094b1]<\/sub> We see even the most highly esteemed abilities to fall under the guidance of political wisdom: for example, military strategy, economics, and rhetoric.\r\n\r\nSince politics uses the other kinds of knowledge, and since, again, it legislates as to what we are to do and not do, [5]<\/sub> the goal of political wisdom must include the goals of the disciplines, with the result that the goal of political wisdom must be the human good.\r\n\r\nFor even if the goal is the same for a single person and for a state, the goal of the state seems to be something greater and more complete to attain or to preserve. Although it is worthwhile to attain this goal merely for one person, it is noblier and more divine to attain it for a people or city-state. These, then, [10]<\/sub> are the goals at which our inquiry aims, since our inquiry is political wisdom in one sense of that term.","rendered":"

The highest good of human life and the importance of knowing it<\/h3>\n

If there is some goal of our actions, which we pursue for its own sake (everything else being pursued for the sake of this goal), and if we do not choose everything for the sake of something else (since if that were the case, the process would go on without limit, [20]<\/sub> so that our desire would be empty and vain), clearly this goal must be the good, that is, the highest good.<\/p>\n

Won’t knowing this highest good have a great influence on life? Won’t we, like archers who have a target to aim at, be more likely to hit upon what is right?<\/p>\n

Political wisdom and ethics are the disciplines that study the highest good of human life<\/h3>\n

If so, [25]<\/sub> we must try, in outline at least, to determine what this highest good is, and to which kinds of knowledge or to what abilities it belongs. It would seem to belong to the most authoritative and architectonic discipline. And political wisdom or the art of the statesman appears to be of this nature; for it is political wisdom that ordains which kinds of knowledge should be studied in a state, and which each class of citizens should learn them and up to what point they should learn them. [1094b1]<\/sub> We see even the most highly esteemed abilities to fall under the guidance of political wisdom: for example, military strategy, economics, and rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Since politics uses the other kinds of knowledge, and since, again, it legislates as to what we are to do and not do, [5]<\/sub> the goal of political wisdom must include the goals of the disciplines, with the result that the goal of political wisdom must be the human good.<\/p>\n

For even if the goal is the same for a single person and for a state, the goal of the state seems to be something greater and more complete to attain or to preserve. Although it is worthwhile to attain this goal merely for one person, it is noblier and more divine to attain it for a people or city-state. These, then, [10]<\/sub> are the goals at which our inquiry aims, since our inquiry is political wisdom in one sense of that term.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":249,"menu_order":2,"template":"","meta":{"pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[48],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-23","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry","chapter-type-numberless"],"part":20,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/249"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":823,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/23\/revisions\/823"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/20"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/23\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=23"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu\/nicomacheanethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}