“Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good.”Aristotel · Etica nicomahică · -340 · cartea I, capitolul 1 (1094a1-3)
No action is aimless: everything we do pursues a good, and the supreme good is the target all others lead to.
Aristotle opens his ethics from an almost obvious observation: we never act from nothing. Medicine aims at health, navigation aims at reaching port, and the small choices of a day aim at something we find desirable. If every action has an end, the question that generates all of ethics follows: is there a final end to which the others lead? Without this starting point, the question of the good life would have nowhere to begin.
If every action has a goal, then goals connect to one another. When you pack a bag, you aim at leaving for a trip; when you take the trip, you aim at rest; when you seek rest, you aim at feeling well. Aristotle notices we cannot follow an endless chain of motives. At some point, something must be desired for its own sake, not for anything else. That is where the chain stops. The natural next question is: would this final point look the same for everyone, or different from person to person?
Why it matters It helps someone restless without knowing why ask the right question: what do all my activities actually lead to?