A Comparison Of Plato And Aristotle's Ideas Of Happiness

Plato and Aristotle, both have similarities and differences in their ideas of which virtues are important and how they lead to happiness. For Plato, in his book "The Republic", happiness is achieved by adhering to a set of rules put into place by the state for each class. According to Aristotle 's "Nicomachean Ethics", Aristotle believed that all human activity is done to achieve happiness, which is considered the supreme good. Becoming wealthy, or famous, or seeking physical pleasure is only done to achieve happiness. Aristotle believed that happiness can only truly be achieved after death, because happiness is more of a temporary state, but while alive, virtue can be achieved by finding a mean between the extremes of excess and deficiency. That mentality can apply to the wealth of a farmer for example; if a farmer is being overpaid for his services, he would become careless and lazy, while an underpaid farmer wouldn’t be able to afford the equipment needed to complete his job. However, there are some things that are considered immoral whether a mean is achieved or not, such as

Aristotle believes the amount of friends should be limited because a real friendship requires time. In battle, Plato agrees that if the enemy is also Greek, then precautions should be taken with regards to land, and killing, however, if the enemy is not Greek, then there are no boundaries. Plato believes that knowing what is right will automatically lead to the right thing being done, while Aristotle believes that it isn 't enough to just know what is good, the person still must make the right choice. Plato believes that virtue wasn’t mandatory for a somewhat primitive kind of happiness, however Aristotle believed that virtue was needed. Plato basically believed that all of the virtues boil down to wisdom, and Aristotle believed that virtue must be practiced, and one can still be virtuous and