relates to being-in-the-world in the mode of the concern that looks around, sees something, knows its way around somehow in what it has beforehand. Now τέχνη, the “knowing-one’s-way-around the concern at the moment,” is that mode of being-in-the-world in which the ἀγαθόν becomes explicitly visible. Τέχνη makes the τέλος explicitly visible. With that, we have an initial and quite general answer to the foremost question.
β. The Explicitness of the ἀνθρώπινον ἀγαθόν in the πολιτική
What has now been shown is that if we seek the ἀγαθόν of the being of the human being as a ζῷον πολιτικόν we must take up that knowing-the-way-around that is appropriate to the being of human beings as thus determined, the knowing-the-way-around that makes the being of human beings explicit as being-with-one-another in its τέλος—more precisely, the knowing-the-way-around that makes this being-with-one-another explicit as this concrete way of being in its πόλις. The τέχνη, the μέθοδος, that is related to beings as ζῷον πολιτικόν, is the πολιτική, this knowing-one’s-way-around in the being of human beings that is determined as being-with-one-another. Politics, as a determinate mode of knowing-one’s-way-around, of cultivating this knowing-the-way-around, is that by which we will come to know something about being-a-τέλος. If we aim at understanding the ἀνθρώπινον ἀγαθόν, that being-determination that the being of human beings constitutes in its genuine being-in-its-world, we must look to the being of human beings itself. We must keep the basic determination of the human being as ζῷον πολιτικόν in view, and look at the human being itself as it is concretely there in the πόλις, how it stands out in its being-with-one-another.
This standing-out of the human being, this “comporting-oneself” in the world, this “comportment,” is τὸ ἦθος. Therefore, politics, as knowing-the-way-around the being of human beings in its genuineness is ethics—ἡ περὶ τὰ ἤθη πολιτική.37 Ethics as a part of politics is a misunderstanding. Aristotle says explicitly: ἡ μὲν οὖν μέθοδος τούτων ἐφίεται, πολιτική τις οὖσα,38 “this investigation [in Book 1 of the Nicomachean Ethics] is an investigation that moves in the direction of [cultivating knowing-the-way-around the being of human beings in its genuineness].” Insofar as this consideration is πολιτική, a basic determination found in all considerations of the ἀγαθόν lies hidden therein.
b) The Basic Determinations of the ἀγαθόν
We are now asking about the determinations of the ἀγαθόν as such. We know that ἀγαθόν is τέλος. Therefore, what is presumably asked about is the character of being-an-end, of finitude (Endlichkeit), the τελειότης, insofar as the ἀγαθόν is τέλειον, insofar as it constitutes being-completed. The ultimate question
37. Rhet. Α 4, 1359 b 10 sq.
38. Eth. Nic. Α 1, 1094 b 11.