Aristotle Happiness

Perceptions of Happiness: Aristotle Aristotle’s most explored subject matter can be argued to be “happiness”. He believes that happiness is the main goal (end) or “highest good” in every person’s life. Many questions arise when debating the concept of happiness as it seems to not have a single definition but is more of a general idea involving many different things in life. In Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics, he touches on the concept of happiness being different for every person and it may depend on one’s virtues and values. As much as I do agree upon Aristotle’s views on the importance of happiness in one’s life, it is only to an extent. I am convinced that happiness is not actually the “highest good” of human life but rather a preferred

He is right to say that basically everything we do in life has some kind of end goal and it is for a good reason and that whatever end that we are seeking will be better than the actions we perform to reach said end. He says in Chapter 1, Book 1 of Nichomachean Ethics, “… that is why some people were right to describe the good as what everything seeks.”(s5) This idea can be visualized as multiple arrows, representing human activities, all pointing at a single point, the point representing happiness. Aristotle even gives examples in Chapter 1, listing many crafts, sciences, and actions that stay true to this idea. For example, positive health in the medical field,

To me, happiness seems to be more of a universal idea or a general concept for something positive rather than possessing a very specific and singular quality. Aristotle delves further into the matter by explaining what he called “The Three Lives” which were different kinds of lives people lived based on their perspective on what happiness was. Aristotle states that the three popularly lived lives are, “the lives of gratification, of political activity, and, third, of study.” (chapter5, s15-s30) Those who live the life of gratification seem to be convinced that true happiness comes in the form of pleasures such as wealth. Aristotle believes that living such a slavish life is a life for grazing animals, as all they do is relax and enjoy things. (Chapter 5, s20) The second life Aristotle talks about is the life of political activity, and those who live this lifestyle seek happiness in the form of honor. According to Aristotle, the political life is too superficial to be what “true happiness” is. The third life that is explored is the life of study, which would obviously involve the consumption of knowledge. As anyone can see, there is no one specific lifestyle that defines the lifestyle for happiness, as it is a rather subjective concept. The fact that something as important as “the primary goal” or “highest good” in life cannot