Ends in Activities

My dissertation is about the ultimate source of justification for human action: it seeks to understand how the particular choices we make, and actions we perform thereby, are ultimately justified. It addresses this issue by focusing on a venerable philosophical problem -- the problem of the infinite regress of ends. In my dissertation, I argue that this problem of regress can only be solved if we employ a neglected idea from Aristotle -- namely, of action viewed as activity (energeia). I maintain that since activity in the Aristotelian sense is an end for itself and is therefore justified by itself, it is the ultimate source of justification for human action.