John Vespasian explains that Aristotle’s understanding of human flourishing and success, as presented in the “Nicomachean Ethics” and the “Eudemian Ethics,” can be summarised in three principles. Those three key ideas are common to Plato, Taoism and Confucianism. The first principle is the need of knowledge to achieve self-actualisation, that is, to achieve one’s potential. The process of self-actualisation or flourishing is essential to happiness, said Aristotle. You need to take action and pursue challenging goals; if you stay passive or fail to set goals for yourself, entropy will eat up your time and energies, and you’ll end up in despondency. The issue is that, before taking action, you’ll have to learn to think. Plato (429-347 BC) had arrived at this conclusion decades before Aristotle. In fact, Aristotle took this principle from Plato and integrated it in his theory of self-actualisation. In his dialogues “The Republic” and “Phaedo,” Plato stated that the goal of life is the pursuit of knowledge, which in his eyes, must be acquired from studying abstractions or “forms.” Aristotle acknowledged the role of knowledge in leading an effective life, but did not regard learning as an end in itself. It’s important to acquire skills and expertise, but those constitute a means to an end. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/key-ideas-in-aristotles-understanding-of-human-flourishing-and-success/

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