# Chapter II explained — Nicomachean Ethics

> Chapter companion for Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle.

## What happens

Aristotle argues that there is a final end desired for its own sake, which is the highest good, and that this good is the object of politics, the master science that orders all other pursuits for the good of the state and the individual.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Good and Happiness

Introduces the concept of a final end desired for its own sake as the highest good, which is the aim of politics.

### Politics and the Individual

Argues that politics is the master science that ordains what is to be done, and that the good of the state is greater and more divine than that of the individual.

## Character check-ins

### Aristotle

Author of the inquiry, presenting the argument for a final end and the supremacy of politics.

## Key lines

> If then in what we do there be some end which we wish for on its own account, choosing all the others as means to this, but not every end without exception as a means to something else (for so we should go on ad infinitum, and desire would be left void and objectless)⁠—this evidently will be the good or the best of all things.

If there is a final goal we pursue for its own sake, and all other goals are means to it, then that goal is the highest good.

_Aristotle establishes the concept of a final end to avoid an infinite regress of desires._

> For though this good is the same for the individual and the state, yet the good of the state seems a grander and more perfect thing both to attain and to secure; and glad as one would be to do this service for a single individual, to do it for a people and for a number of states is nobler and more divine.

The good is the same for one person or a whole community, but achieving it for the state is more noble and divine.

_Aristotle elevates political good above individual good, framing the inquiry as political._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicomachean_ethics_se/chapters/ii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicomachean_ethics_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/nicomachean_ethics_se/chapters