is: which way of being of human beings is it that suffices for the τέλειον ἀκρότατον? Ἀγαθόν is not an objective thing buzzing around, but instead is a how of being-there itself.
With the investigation of the ἀγαθόν as our purpose, and in order to gain a more precise insight into the structure of being, four stages of the discussion of the ἀγαθόν have resulted:
1. Where is something like the ἀγαθόν generally visible?
2. Where, exactly, do we detect a corresponding ἀνθρώπινον ἀγαθόν?
3. What are the general determinations of the ἀγαθόν?
4. What is sufficient for the ἀγαθόν thus characterized, what constitutes the being-there of human beings in its completedness?
With regard to the context in which the ἀγαθόν becomes visible, we must go back to the first sentence of the Nicomachean Ethics, where it is shown that ἀγαθόν is related to τέχνη, πρᾶξις, προαίρεσις, and γνῶσις. The ἀγαθόν is met in a knowing-the-way-around something where there is no question of τέχνη happening occasionally alongside a concern. Τέχνη belongs to the sense of concern. “I am concerned about something.” It is said, thereby, that I know my way around within the context of that which I anticipate, that the what of concern is in sight, is explicitly there, that I know my way around in that which is conducive. The ἀγαθόν as such is encountered in τέχνη, specifically in such a way that it is explicit. That is an indication that, as ἀνθρώπινον ἀγαθόν, it deals with a τέχνη to which a concern belongs, which concern constitutes the being of human beings. It is an indication that we will find the ἀνθρώπινον ἀγαθόν in a characteristic knowing-the-way-around of living itself. Aristotle designates this τέχνη as πολιτική. Therein lies the fact that he sees the knowing-one’s-wayaround of living itself as πολιτική, being-there as being-with-one-another.
α. Manifoldness and Guiding Connectedness of the τέλη and Necessity of a τέλος δι᾽ αὑτό
In relation to this being-there of human beings which is posited in this field of vision from the outset, there are various things to figure out in the described manner—namely, that a manifoldness of concerns is given. In being-with-oneanother, there lies a manifoldness of concern, not a mere aggregate but rather a multifariousness that has a connectedness that is determined by the character of being-with-one-another. Furthermore, with this manifoldness of concerns, there will also be a manifoldness of τέλη at which concern reaches its end.
In relation to the τέλη, Aristotle makes some fundamental distinctions. Right at the beginning of the Nicomachean Ethics, he says: διαφορὰ δέ τις φαίνεται τῶν τελῶν· τὰ μὲν γάρ εἰσιν ἐνέργειαι, τὰ δὲ παρ᾿ αὐτὰς ἔργα τινά.39 “It appears that there is a certain distinction among the τέλη. Some are ἐνέργειαι [ἐνέργεια in an entirely distinctive sense, perhaps the fundamental character of
39. Eth. Nic. Α 1, 1094 a 3 sqq.