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ethics

The Telos / Final End

τέλος

The 'end for the sake of which' — the final goal that gives every action and every nature its point.

Also: final end · purpose · goal · final cause · telos · finis · hou heneka

The notion of a *telos* — the final end for the sake of which an action or thing exists — is central to Aristotle (NE I.1 1094a, Physics II.8) and to all subsequent Hellenistic ethics. Aristotle identifies the human telos with `eudaimonia` (flourishing) and uses it to ground his account of every craft, inquiry, and virtue: each aims at some good, and the good of life as a whole is its final end. The Stoics, following Zeno of Citium, redescribed the human telos as `homologoumenōs tē phusei zēn` ("living in agreement with nature"), keeping the Aristotelian framework but identifying the natural end with virtue alone.

In practice the telos shapes how options get evaluated. For Aristotle, external goods (friends, modest resources, decent health) are needed for full eudaimonia but are not the end itself. For the Stoics, virtue alone is the telos and everything else is a "preferred indifferent" — the sage may rationally prefer health to sickness but their happiness doesn't depend on it. This Stoic-vs-Aristotelian disagreement on the role of external goods is the canonical fault-line of Hellenistic ethics, taken up later by Cicero (*De Finibus*) and shaping Christian, Maimonidean, and Thomistic treatments of the final end of human life.

Where this idea shows up

111 Greek sources·10 Jewish-canon citations

Where to read it