The lower goods are actions or things that are needed to achieve happiness. For example, a child will ask for a toy for several months, and when he receives it, he will feel joy. The toy in this example is lower good in Aristotle’s hierarchy. In this example, the child has not yet fully formed as a person and does not have a vision for the future. Therefore, happiness for a child is something as simple as a toy.
However, for adults, things are different. Let’s say a middle-aged married man wants to buy a house. He wants to buy a house so that he and his family have a place to live and don’t have to pay rent. He wants stability and confidence to keep his children safe. He wants to live long with his family in the house he bought. All these are lower goods in the understanding of Aristotle. They are all sequential and cause each other. Lower goods are actions or things that make people feel they are on the right path. Therefore, people act and behave accordingly in order to obtain and achieve lower goods. However, what is in the end of the path?
Aristotle believed that the ultimate goal of every human being is happiness. He arranged human desires in hierarchy where happiness is placed on top. Happiness is defined by Aristotle as eudaimonia. This word is translated into English as “happiness”, but in fact, it gives a deeper meaning – “wholeness” (Clark and Poortenga 1). If we give more meaning to this word, then we can understand how Aristotle defined “happiness”. If happiness is “wholeness”, then for a person to become happy, it is necessary to become “whole”. And then the question arises: What does it take to become whole? Thus, all a person has to do to become whole is lower goods. If a person wants to become an architect, then first he must learn to draw. Then, one has to get a higher education. After, the person has to work as an architect, and create architectural drawings of buildings. Only then, a person can be called an architect. What was all this for? All these efforts were made to make a person feel fulfilled and become happy. Simply put, the lower goods are steps in achieving the main goal – happiness.
Work Cited
Clark, Kelly & Anne Poortenga. The Story of Ethics: Fulfilling Our Human Nature. Pearson, 2002.