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APPENDIX I CHANCE IN THE LISTS OF SOURCES OF HAPPINESS IN NE AND EE Both in NE and EE (but not in MM) Aristotle lists the possible sources of happiness before examining them. It is worthwhile examining the place accorded to chance on these lists. In NE I, ix Aristotle raises the question of the sources of happiness: he inquires whether happiness is (a) something that can be learnt (PDTKWRYQ) or (b) something that can be acquired by habituation or some other kind of practice (HMTLVWRQ K@ D>OOZ SZ DMVNKWRYQ) or (c) whether it comes to man thanks to some divine allotment (NDWDY WLQD THLYDQ PRLUDQ), or (d) by chance (GLD WXYFKQ).1 The first three of these possibilities are inspired by Plato’s discussion of the sources of DMUHWKY.2 For Aristotle DMUHWKY is the source of HXMGDLPRQLYD,3 and hence a discussion of the sources of DMUHWKY and of HXMGDLPRQLYD amounts here to the same thing. The fourth possibility, namely WXYFK, was added by Aristotle on the basis of the discussion of the role of WXYFK in the previous chapter.4 1 NE I, ix, 1099 b 9-11. On the term THLYD PRLUD cf. Gauthier-Jolif, Aristote, L’Ethique à Nicomaque...II, 72. The term occurs e.g. in Plat. Meno 99e, 100b; cf. 70a. On THLYD PRLUD in Plato cf. Berry, The History and Development…49-85; Des Places, Pindare et Platon...149-55; Van Camp and Canart, Le sens…; also supra Introduction to this volume n. 13. 2 Cf. esp. Meno 70a, 99e. The Sophists held that virtue can be taught. Antisthenes rejected this view and held that virtue is acquired by training. 3 Cf. NE I, ix, 1099 b 16-17: HXMGDLPRQLYD is DMUHWKD>TORQNDLWHYOR. 4 Cf. esp. 1099 b 7-8, also EE I, i, 1214 a 24-25. It is true that WXYFK is also mentioned in Protag. 323c-d and in passing in Meno 99a. Zeller, Die Philosophie der CHANCE IN THE LISTS OF SOURCES OF HAPPINESS 261 Of these possibilities Aristotle first rejects Plato’s conclusion in the Meno, namely (c).5 He admits that if anything were a gift of the gods (THZQGZYUKPD), then it would be reasonable that happiness should be godgiven (THRYVGRWRQ), since the gods would want to give the best gift. However, he does not believe in the gods or in any efficient causality on the part of the Unmoved Mover, and hence does not believe that happiness is godgiven. He states that the discussion of this topic belongs to another branch of study,6 and explains elsewhere that the Unmoved Mover operates only as a final cause.7 Aristotle accepts (a) and (b).8 He then denies (d) as follows: “To hand over the greatest and finest of things to chance (WXYFK would be excessively incongruous.”9 By the latter statement it is to be understood that chance is not the main source of happiness, not that chance plays no role in happiness in NE, since this would not be true. Chance plays a role in determining external goods which are a condition, although not a source of happiness. It is to be noted that the theory of intuition found in EE and MM, which comes under WXYFK (HXMWXFLYD), is not developed in NE, although it is referred to in NE X, ix.10 In EE I, i Aristotle raises the same question regarding the sources of happiness: …whether all who achieve the designation ‘happy’ are so (i) by nature (IXYVHL), as they are tall or short and differ in skin-colour, or (ii) through Griechen…II, i, 594 n. 4 fin. believed that WXYFK in 1099 b 10 was an elucidation of THLYDPRLUD. But this is certainly incorrect, as pointed out by Berry, The History and Development…62. 5 NE I, ix, 1099 b 14-15: HLMPKTHRYSHPSWR 6 NE I, ix, 1099 b 14. 7 If the gods were in no way related to happiness, Aristotle would not have referred the matter to another discussion. It is certainly incorrect that Aristotle did not discuss this question elsewhere, as held e.g. by Gauthier-Jolif, Aristote, L’Ethique à Nicomaque…II, 73, since he explains the sense in which the Unmoved Mover is related to happiness. On God as final cause of happiness in the ethical works cf. my book Dio e contemplazione… 8 NE I, ix, 1099 b 15-16: GL’ DMUHWKQNDLYWLQD...

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