Therefore, if there is only one final end, this will be what we are seeking, and if there are more than one, the most final of these will be what we are seeking. Since there are evidently more than one end, and we choose some of these for the sake of something else, clearly not all ends are final ends but the chief good is evidently something final. So the argument has by a different course reached the same point but we must try to state this even more clearly. Therefore, if there is an end for all that we do, this will be the good achievable by action, and if there are more than one, these will be the goods achievable by action. In medicine this is health, in strategy victory, in architecture a house, in any other sphere something else, and in every action and pursuit the end for it is for the sake of this that all men do whatever else they do. What then is the good of each? Surely that for whose sake everything else is done. It seems different in different actions and arts it is different in medicine, in strategy, and in the other arts likewise. Let us again return to the good we are seeking, and ask what it can be. In it, Aristotle asks why humans do the things that we do, and his answer is that ultimately we do everything we do because we think it will lead to our happiness. The following is one of the most famous passages in all of Western philosophy, an excerpt from Book 1, Chapter 7 of Nicomachean Ethics. Only flourishing is pursued for its own sake-it is the goal for all of our lives. (Think of hedonists like Bluto from Animal House). Aristotle thought pleasure can be fleeting, and even individuals whose lives were going quite badly might have pleasure. In this text, Aristotle distinguishes pleasure (the feeling of happiness) from human flourishing or 'eudaimonia’’ (the state of having fulfilled your potential and living well).

It is a set of philosophical arguments and recommendations for students who wish to achieve happiness. The Nicomachean Ethics is a ten chapter book collecting fragments from Aristotle’s lessons at the Lyceum. Aristotle was interested in every branch of philosophy and science. He learned philosophy from Plato (who learned it from Socrates). Aristotle was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived 384-322 BC.

Nichomachean ethics by aristotle