Abstract: It is often thought that Aristotle is an ethical egoist – that he thinks that each individual should do everything for the sake of an ultimate end, namely, her own happiness. I argue against this very common reading, and offer an alternative – that Aristotle identifies the ultimate good, for human beings, with happiness (or eudaimonia), but is not saying that each person’s ultimate aim is her own happiness. Rather, he is offering a general, explanatory theory about what makes things good for human beings; all other things are good because of some relation they stand in to human happiness. I call this the ‘political’ reading of Aristotle’s target metaphor, because in my view, his theory is intended to guide the statesman in maximizing the good in a city.
Mitzi Lee is an Associate Professor at University of Colorado-Boulder
