VCAA Philosophy rewards students who can critically compare viewpoints — identifying genuine points of agreement and disagreement, and assessing which position is more defensible. Comparison is not merely listing two views side by side; it requires showing how and why they converge or diverge at the level of premises, assumptions, and values.
When comparing two positions, ask:
1. What do they agree on? (shared premises or values)
2. Where do they diverge, and why? (different premises, different assumptions about human nature or value)
3. Which view is more plausible, and why? (reasoned verdict)
| Dimension | Aristotle | Mill |
|---|---|---|
| Nature of happiness | Activity of the soul in accordance with virtue (eudaimonia) | Pleasure and absence of pain (hedone) |
| Measure of the good | Excellence of human function (teleological) | Greatest happiness of the greatest number (aggregative) |
| Role of virtue | Constitutive of happiness — you cannot be happy without virtue | Instrumentally useful — virtue promotes happiness but is not happiness itself |
| Higher/lower distinction | Intellectual and civic life are highest functions | Higher (intellectual) pleasures are better in kind, not just degree |
| Social scope | Primarily concerned with the individual’s flourishing | Impartial concern for all affected parties |
Aristotle’s account captures our intuition that a vicious but pleasurable life is not truly good. Mill’s account is more egalitarian and socially inclusive, but struggles with the experience machine problem. A comparative essay should weigh which assumption is more plausible: that pleasure is the ultimate good, or that excellent human functioning is.
VCAA FOCUS: This comparison often appears in exam questions. Stress that both philosophers are critical of unreflective hedonism but for different reasons and with different positive accounts.
| Dimension | Aristotle | Sartre |
|---|---|---|
| Human nature | Fixed (telos — we have an essential function) | None — “existence precedes essence” |
| Basis of the good | Living in accordance with our nature | Authentic self-creation through free choice |
| Role of community | Essential — humans are political animals | Potentially alienating — others are threats to freedom (“hell is other people”) |
| Virtue | Acquired through habituation within community | Not a fixed set of traits; values are self-chosen |
This comparison raises the deepest philosophical question: does a good life require that we live according to a given human nature, or do we create the standards by which we judge a life good?
PLEASURE-CENTRED VIRTUE-CENTRED FREEDOM-CENTRED
Epicurus → Mill Aristotle → MacIntyre Sartre → de Beauvoir
(ataraxia/pleasure) (eudaimonia/function) (authenticity/situation)
All three traditions agree the good life requires reflection and some form of self-mastery. They disagree fundamentally about what the goal of that reflection and mastery is.
EXAM TIP: Use a comparison table or diagram in your planning, but write in prose in the exam — examiners want to see reasoning, not just labels.
STUDY HINT: For each pair of thinkers, memorise one agreement and two disagreements. This gives you a versatile scaffold for any comparative question.