PERCEIVING LIFE AS GOOD AND OUR OWN: ARISTOTLE ON SUNAISTHĒSIS

In EN IX.9, Aristotle explains the value human beings place on their lives in terms of a special self-directed perception that attends their actualization in perceiving and thinking. I argue that Aristotle understands this perception as one that synoptically grasps life as good and one’s own. I further show that Aristotle’s understanding of the nature of this perception is key to his central argument in IX.9: the perception accounts for the good person’s experience both of his individual life and of the life of his friend as choiceworthy.