Aristotle Put Ergonomics on the Map
“Looking for a mind at work”
In an article I recently published, “Mike Rowe, Work, and Meaning in Life,” I claim that Aristotle put ergonomics on the map. No, he didn’t design comfortable office furniture that improves your posture.
In ancient Greek, ergon means “work” and nomos means “law” or “practice.” Ergonomics, then, is concerned with the “laws of work.” It takes work for living beings to remain in existence as the kind of beings they are. The “laws” involved here are thus the natural principles that set the standard for the kind of work each being actively needs to do.
Aristotle looks to a living being’s nature to figure out what is good for it. In his Nicomachean Ethics, he’s interested in developing moral principles and providing practical guidance for humans.[1] Aristotle thus seeks the distinctive work of being human that cuts across and is deeper than any specific profession. Yes, we each have a job or vocation, but each person’s most fundamental task is the work of being human.
To figure out what our human nature is, Aristotle distinguishes us from other living beings, such as plants and animals. We share nutrition and metabolism with plants, and we share those capacities plus sensation and perception with animals. What we have in addition to all those capacities is a rational faculty. The distinctive work of humans, based on our nature, is thus to reason—that is, to think.[2]
Aristotle then makes an analogy. Just as a harpist’s work is to play the harp and an excellent harpist’s work is to play that instrument well, he concludes that the work of being human—a good or morally excellent human—is to use your rational faculty well. To achieve this, you need to choose to act virtuously throughout your life according to the rational principle in your soul. Stating it this way may sound simple, but it takes a lifetime of challenging work of choosing to observe carefully, think clearly, and act steadfastly. The reward of such work is a life of eudaimonia, which can roughly be translated as flourishing, happiness, or “wellness of spirit.”
[1] Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. Joe Sachs (Indianapolis, IN: Focus, 2002), Book I, chap. 7. This passage is famously referred to as his “function argument.” However, what many translators translate as “function” is the ancient Greek word ergon. Sachs precisely translates ergon as “work,” and the lifelong process of being human as “being-at-work.” “Function” is not the best translation here of ergon, because that makes it sound like it is something we are given to do from outside of us. On Aristotle’s view, our activity of living emerges from our nature and depends on us initiating and maintaining it through an “internal principle of motion” involving choice and thought.
[2] The phrase in the subtitle above, which I think Aristotle would appreciate as it’s linked to his claim about the centrality of reason, is from the song “The Schuyler Sisters,” from Hamilton: An American Musical, music, lyrics, and book by Lin-Manuel Miranda (2015).
To a life of eudaimonia!!! :)
Thanks, Carrie-Ann (and Scott), good to remember.