Exploring Aristotle's Concept of Happiness

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Happiness is my emotional state when I feel positive emotions. It is the feeling I get when I am enjoying something. This is a familiar concept for all of us, but when Aristotle talks about “happiness” in Nicomachean Ethics, it does not coincide with our modern notions of happiness. “Happiness” is really valuable for Aristotle as he considers it to be the highest good of man and that which every action aims at. He considers it to be something divine.
The Greek word used by Aristotle for happiness is εὐδαιμονία. The translation, “happiness” can be misleading as etymologically, it is made up of εὖ and δαίμων, meaning, “well, good” and “divinity, fortune,” respectively. So, εὐδαιμονία literally means, “having a good fortune,” or “having a good divinity.” The latter points to something like having a divine being guiding our steps and showing us the right way, which essentially seems to be good luck. Then, does εὐδαιμονία depend on our fortune, and thus the divinities? Not for Aristotle, he associates εὐδαιμονία with “living well” and “doing well” as he states in Book 1 of “Nicomachean Ethics”:
“…What it is that we say political science aims at and what is the highest of all goods achievable by action. Verbally there is very general agreement; for both the general run of men and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness, and identify …show more content…

We tend to think of happiness as an emotional state, whereas the Greeks treat εὐδαιμονία as a measure of objective success. It would be unthinkable for a Greek that a slave could have εὐδαιμονία; for, a beggar does not have enough good fortune in his life to be able to practice virtuous activities. While a successful businessman and eminent public figure could suffer from depression and still have εὐδαιμονία, as long as he bears his misfortunes nobly; for, he has enough good fortune to actually practice virtuous

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