BASTARE A SE STESSI E NON MANCARE DI NULLA

Paolo Bonato

This paper explores the notion of autarkeia (self-sufficiency) in Aristotle, with a focus on its application to theoria — the contemplative activity—within the Nicomachean Ethics. I argue that Aristotle employs autarkeia with two distinct but related meanings: first, as the capacity of a being or activity to exist or function independently (“being sufficient unto itself”); second, as the condition of lacking nothing essential to its fulfilment or excellence. While the first sense often applies to substances or self-contained realities, I maintain that only the second meaning is properly attributable to theoria as an energeia that is pursued for its own sake. In this light, theoria is not autarchic in the strong ontological sense of an entity that exists independently, but rather in the ethical and teleological sense of an activity that is complete, lacking in nothing, and not subordinated to any external end. This interpretation clarifies the unique status of theoria in Aristotle’s hierarchy of human activities and its relation to the concept of the highest good (eudaimonia).