Big goals, as you describe them, are not good. For valuable things, there can be too much or too little; having an inappropriate amount of concern for such a thing is a vice of excess or deficiency. Having the appropriate amount of concern for valuable things is virtue, and having the right balance of valuable things in your life is eudaimonia, “the good life”.
The usual story is that it’s binary—at each moment, you either have it or you don’t. It would explain why Aristotle thought most people would never get there.
Over time, I’m sure this could be expressed as trying to maximize something.
The cereal-box-top Aristotelian response:
Big goals, as you describe them, are not good. For valuable things, there can be too much or too little; having an inappropriate amount of concern for such a thing is a vice of excess or deficiency. Having the appropriate amount of concern for valuable things is virtue, and having the right balance of valuable things in your life is eudaimonia, “the good life”.
Can you have too much eudaimonia?
The usual story is that it’s binary—at each moment, you either have it or you don’t. It would explain why Aristotle thought most people would never get there.
Over time, I’m sure this could be expressed as trying to maximize something.
Yeah, can f(x) be too equal to 3?