Aristotle's Ethics, Politics, Poetics, and Legacy

Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, named for his son Nicomachus, who is traditionally credited with editing the text, opens with the claim that every human activity aims at some good, and that the highest good, sought for its own sake and not merely as a means to anything further, is eudaimonia, usually translated as "happiness" or, more precisely, "flourishing." Aristotle identifies this good through his "function argument" (ergon): just as a flautist's good consists in playing the flute well, the human good must consist in performing the characteristic human function, rational activity, well and in accordance with virtue, over the course of a complete life, rather than in any single fortunate moment.