Aristotle confines himself to inquiring after “the good” for the individual. As he goes on, it dawns upon him more and more (see ‘Eth.’ v. 5-11), that “the man” has an independent status distinct from that of “the citizen,” and that in his capacity of human being each citizen has needs, aims, and virtues of his own, irrespective of the State. Thus by composing this work he established the separation of Ethics from Politics,—these two sciences having been previously mixed up together by Socrates and Plato, who were the great founders of both.
What constitutes the chief good for an individual, or in other words, happiness? Aristotle is somewhat abstract and metaphysical in arguing upon this question. He says, happiness must be an end in itself, and not a means to anything else; it must lie within the proper sphere or function of man,—that function being a rational and moral life; it must be, not a merely dormant state, but a state of conscious vitality; and lastly, it must be in accordance with the law of excellence proper to the function of man. Thus we arrive at the general idea that the highest happiness consists in the harmonious exercise of man’s highest powers; and the treatise ends by declaring particularly that the speculative reason is man’s highest endowment, and that the truest happiness consists in philosophic thought.
“This,” he exclaims (‘Eth.’ X. vii. 7), “would be perfect human happiness, if prolonged through a life of full duration. Such a life, however, would be
