62 Moral Philosophy: Ideas of Good and Evil, Right and WrongThe Four Causes which Aristotle describes are principles by
which every thing moves from potential to actual, to the perfec
tion that their end requires. They are 1) material cause, 2) formal
cause, 3) efficient cause, and 4) final cause. It works like this. A
piece of clay (material cause) is determined by the potter to
become a pot (formal cause), is molded by a pottery maker’s
hands (efficient cause), so that it can be used for the purpose it
was intended (final cause). The piece of clay is simply formless
matter. The pottery maker provides the energy, the force to
change the clay into something else. But that change has to be
directed according to some plan (shall we make a pot or a plate?),
and finally, the pot must be put to the use for which it was
intended, to perfect the process by which unformed matter
reaches its full realization.
Since God and nature do nothing in vain, the implications for
ethics according to Aristotle are clear. What is man’s end, what
is the highest good? Aristotle chooses that which he claims is
self-sufficient, that which needs nothing else, but is complete
unto itself. The highest good, then, is Happiness. That is the goal
each man seeks. Many of the things which we confuse with
happiness are often just means to happiness. For example,
pleasure, wealth, good health, may all be a part of happiness but
are not self sufficient, as is happiness, and therefore are not
adequate to make one happy. Happiness, according to Aristotle
is an activity of the soul (mind) in pursuit of virtue.
Virtue, then must be defined. Aristotle does so, as follows.
What is the obvious essence of man’s nature? Answer—reason.
Man is the rational animal, reason is the one thing that distin
guishes man from all other living things. Thus, for man to fulfill
the essence of his being, as all things must, he must live a life of
reason. And to live a life in accordance with reason is to lead a
virtuous life. This then, is intellectual virtue. Moral virtue is
developing the habit or predisposition to do good. The person
who can control those desires which could lead him into immoral
choices is morally good. As noted earlier, his Nichomachean
Ethics, begins by stating, “...the good has rightly been declared
to be that at which all things aim....”
Since we all have desires and passions, they are not in and of
themselves evil. How we deal with them is the issue, and