In What Sense Wrong Conceptions of Eudaimonia Get at Least Some Things Right

Abstract

In a puzzling sentence, Aristotle claims in Nicomachean Ethics I.8 that proponents ofunsuccessful accounts of eudaimonia have grasped if not many, at least some aspects of it correctly.This paper tries to explain in detail what this sentence means in the context by identifying what exactlywas said correctly by the proponents of unsuccessful accounts. As a result, I submit, Aristotle has arhetorical procedure, since Aristotle would be making some effort directed to convince people recalcitrantto his account of eudaimonia.