This paper explores whether Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia might be understood not as the highest good, but as one level within a nested hierarchy of flourishing. I consider the possibility that 'good' functions less as an indefinable property and more as a fundamental orientation—akin to 'north' on a moral compass—that emerges at three interconnected levels: biological continuity, individual flourishing, and civilizational advancement.
Drawing primarily on Aristotelian virtue ethics, I examine how each level might provide necessary conditions for the next while being transformed by what emerges from it. The paper investigates whether this framework could illuminate the relationship between biological nature and ethical life without reducing one to the other. In particular, I explore how virtues might cascade through these levels, taking different forms while serving interconnected purposes. Rather than claiming to resolve long standing metaethical puzzles, this paper offers a preliminary sketch of how individual eudaimonia might serve as a bridge between biological imperatives and societal flourishing.
Wednesday July 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:55pm AEST Steele-206
