Human nature as a task. On human nature in the Nicomachean Ethics

Title: Human Nature as a Man's Task. Study of Human Nature in the Nicomachean Ethics Author: Mgr. Stanislav SYNEK Department: Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague Supervisor: prof. PhDr. Jan SOKOL, Ph.D., CSc. Abstract: The thesis concentrates on two basic concepts of Aristotle's ethics: happiness (EUDAIMONIA) and (human) nature (FYSIS). It's main aim is to show that human nature is not a state into which an individual is born but an end that is to be achieved through excellent, i.e. virtuous activity during the course of the whole human life. In chapter one ethics is introduced as a theoretical enquiry that is trying to understand the true nature of this end (EUDAIMONIA). This enquiry must be based on practical effort of acquiring the requisite excellence, which is shown in chapters two and three. The best human life consists in performing excellent actions. Thus excellence is a criterion of what is good or bad in terms ofliving the best way life. But excellence for Aristotle is not a general concept: it is always a disposition of some individual that is manifested in his actions and in the way he understands variable actual situations. Emphasis on excellence so understood means also that human nature demonstrates itself not (only) in what is usual or common but also on what is..