Book 3 / Chapter 5
Paragraph 2 - Voluntary Wickedness and Happiness
Explanation - Part By Part
"The saying that 'no one is voluntarily wicked nor involuntarily happy' seems to be partly false and partly true; for no one is involuntarily happy, but wickedness is voluntary."
Aristotle is examining the popular idea that people are not wicked by choice and that happiness cannot be accidental. He argues that this statement is only partially correct. Specifically:
- Happiness is not something that happens to people against their will (no one is involuntarily happy). Happiness involves deliberate choices and actions; it doesn't just occur accidentally. You have to consciously live in a way that leads to happiness.
- On the other hand, Aristotle claims that wickedness is voluntary. People are responsible for their own moral failings because they make choices that lead to vice (bad character or behavior). Essentially, being "wicked" is something that comes from one's own deliberate decisions and actions—it doesn’t just "happen" to someone.
"Or else we shall have to dispute what has just been said, at any rate, and deny that man is a moving principle or begetter of his actions as of children."
In this line, Aristotle is presenting a challenge to those who might disagree with his argument that wickedness is voluntary. He essentially says that if we deny that humans are the source ("moving principle") of their own actions—just as they are the creators ("begetters") of their children—then we would have to give up the idea that people are responsible for what they do. In other words, Aristotle is making the case that, just as we are undeniably the cause of our offspring (children), we are also undeniably the cause of our actions. To reject this idea would mean denying that humans have control over their own behavior, which would undermine the concepts of virtue, vice, and personal accountability.
"But if these facts are evident and we cannot refer actions to moving principles other than those in ourselves, the acts whose moving principles are in us must themselves also be in our power and voluntary."
Aristotle argues here that if it's clear that the "moving principles" (the reasons or causes behind our actions) come from within us, then those actions must also be under our control and therefore voluntary. In other words, because we are the originators of our own decisions and behavior—like how a parent is the origin of their child—this makes us responsible for what we do. There’s no external force or principle making these decisions for us; it’s all rooted in us, so we have the power to choose noble or base (good or bad) actions. This reinforces the idea that moral responsibility rests on us as individuals.