In the First Book of The Ethics, Aristotle states that “true happiness is activity that expresses virtue.” This idea is expressed that happiness is a state of being, which the world around said mind cannot contribute to this state of being. However, happiness defined during his time is more about achieving and being able to fulfill these virtues and not only look at the instant gratifications in life, such as pleasures in only material form. Happiness seems to be Aristotle’s reason that people tend to aim and “hence the good has been well described as that at which everything aims.” (23, Aristotle) Aristotle saw that neither notions toward happiness, such as wealth, honor or other ordinary pleasures that people tend to lean toward could not …show more content…
Aristotle believed that materialistic goods and basic human desires would in return block a path toward virtue. “Nonetheless, happiness evidently also needs external goods to be added, as we said, since we cannot, or cannot easily, do fine actions if we lack the resources”. (Aristotle, 31). This Virtue Aristotle keeps mentioning is defined as being “of thought and Virtue of character. Virtue of thought arises and grows mostly from teaching, and hence needs experience and time. Virtue of Character [ i.e of ethos] results from habit [ethos]; hence its name “ethical”.” (Aristotle, 35) Aristotle claims that the Virtues of Character do not come to us at birth by nature, rather they come during the time and are instilled in us with life. Aristotle in Book 2 states that Virtue is or must be one of the conditions of the soul, either; feelings, capacities, and states. A moral mean is rather difficult to find and the individual that is searching for this mean can not only be rational but must be able to adapt their characteristics to the certain reason. Aristotle makes an example of having too much or too little of something can distort the …show more content…
Socrates says that a Philosopher should welcome death, though it is not right to commit suicide. “Then Evenus will be willing, like every man who partakes worthily of philosophy. Yet perhaps he will take his own life, for that, they say, is not right.” (Plato, 61c-61d). Basically, Socrates explains that we are part of the God’s plans and should not deem harm upon ourselves. Socrates also explains to Cebes that we are servants to Gods and should be happy to be their servants and show gratitude for being so. Socrates then added how a philosopher should not coward when death arrives, even after their entire life they prepared for death, it is simply illogical to do so. This idea relates to the doctrine of the soul and its relation to the body by how death separates the soul from the mortal body. Being a philosopher, distancing oneself from bodily and mortal pleasures such as alcohol, sex, or fancy items, can help the transition from one 's soul to leave its body. Socrates does his best to distance himself from the distractions of the body that try to influence the mind to lead his reason astray. Socrates believed that a person should only act on reason and reason alone. He also believed that Justice, wisdom and other things cannot exist by itself, but rather can only be experienced if the polar opposite of it. Instead, the wisdom of itself can help extinguish the bodily desires of materialist things in
It starts with Phaedo, Simmias and Cebes, all interlocutors who recount the story of Socrates execution. This dialogue is unique because it contains discussions of the philosopher, a soul’s immortality through the opposites, recollection, affinity and the last argument. A philosopher is capable to relate to death and understand what happens to the soul. Socrates mentioned that those who called themselves philosophers should be ready to face death and not commit suicide or violently lay hands upon themselves. One should not commit suicide because men are looked after the Gods and “doing nothing in association with it unless we simply can’t avoid it, not letting it infect us with the kind of thing it is but purifying ourselves from its influence – until such time that the gods themselves set us free” (67a). Therefore, it would be impolite for one to end their life on their own terms before God willed it. A philosopher is “always eager to set the soul free” and sets the least value on the body (67d). A philosopher is someone who denies his self-pleasures, interests, wealth, and tries to spend his life to detach his soul from the body and its limitations. According to Socrates, the philosopher is on a journey to seek virtue, wisdom and knowledge. Moreover, if intelligence is a philosopher’s only goal then the body acts as a hindrance because of its
In conclusion, Aristotle’s elucidation of happiness is based on a ground of ethics because happiness to him is coveted for happiness alone. The life of fame and fortune is not the life for Aristotle. Happiness is synonymous for living well. To live well is to live with virtue. Virtue presents humans with identification for morals, and for Aristotle, we choose to have “right” morals. Aristotle defines humans by nature to be dishonored when making a wrong decision. Thus, if one choses to act upon pleasure, like John Stuart Mill states, for happiness, one may choose the wrong means of doing so. Happiness is a choice made rationally among many pickings to reach this state of mind. Happiness should not be a way to “win” in the end but a way to develop a well-behaved, principled reputation.
He stated, “So virtue is a provisional disposition… virtue is a mean; but in respect of what is right and what is right and best, it is an extreme (Aristotle, 42).” Here Aristotle explains that moral virtue is determined by reason and that it avoids the states of too much, excess, or too little, deficiency. He believes that our soul is the principle of living because it is inside of us. Therefore, for Aristotle the soul was morally which is where we are given the right reason. He believes that, “there are two parts of the soul, one rational and one irrational (Aristotle, 145).” The rational part, which is how he believe we should do our actions upon, consists of possessing reason, part that can think and command, and intellectual virtues, which are virtues that come from time and experience. Courage is a moral virtue. When having courage, you either have too much fear, which makes you a coward, or you have too little fear, where you’d be considered rash or fool hardy. Generosity is also a moral virtue. When you are generous, you are either giving too much, which makes you profligate, or you are giving too little which would consider you as a stingy person. Moral virtues lead you to happiness because of their intermediate state that is by
Aristotle begins his ethical account by saying that “every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and every choice, is thought to aim for some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim” (line 1094a1). Though some things might produce higher good than others, Aristotle looks for the highest good, which he says we must “desire for its own sake” and our actions are not decided on some other goal beyond this good itself (line 1094a20-25).[1] This highest good is then realized to be happiness (line 1095a16-20).
One of Aristotle’s conclusions in the first book of Nicomachean Ethics is that “human good turns out to be the soul’s activity that expresses virtue”(EN 1.7.1098a17). This conclusion can be explicated with Aristotle’s definitions and reasonings concerning good, activity of soul, and excellence through virtue; all with respect to happiness.
Socrates discusses that people should not fear death because we do not know the qualities of death. Even though we do not know what death is, he makes some suggestions for the possibilities after death. He suggests that maybe death is just an endless sleep without dreaming, it is where we can finally come to peace with ourselves. He also suggest that maybe in the afterlife he will be able to meet heroic people in the past, where he can share his experience and question people to see whether they are wise. Even in death Socrates is still going to practice philosophy even if the place is bad. Even if he did not live a just life that he thought he did, he can examine what he did wrong and fix the problems in the after life. I agree with Socrates
From pursuing pleasure to avoiding pain, life seems to ultimately be about achieving happiness. However, how to define and obtain happiness has and continues to be a widely debated issue. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle gives his view on happiness. Aristotle focuses particularly on how reason, our rational capacity, should help us recognize and pursue what will lead to happiness and the good life.';(Cooley and Powell, 459) He refers to the soul as a part of the human body and what its role is in pursuing true happiness and reaching a desirable end. Aristotle defines good'; as that which everything aims.(Aristotle, 459) Humans have an insatiable need to achieve goodness and eventual happiness. Sometimes the end that people aim for is the activity they perform, and other times the end is something we attempt to achieve by means of that activity. Aristotle claims that there must be some end since everything cannot be means to something else.(Aristotle, 460) In this case, there would be nothing we would try to ultimately achieve and everything would be pointless. An ultimate end exists so that what we aim to achieve is attainable. Some people believe that the highest end is material and obvious (when a person is sick they seek health, and a poor person searches for wealth).
On Aristotle’s search to find the highest good of a human being, he first asked what the ergon, or task, of being human is. His main focus was mostly on what the purpose or goal of human existence should be. Aristotle said that everyone is trying to reach happiness, whether it is by having money, love, or being honored. However, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, he believes that the good we are trying to reach is one ultimate level of experience and that it is “desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.” All the other good that we experience throughout our lives is just pushing us toward the one thing that will make us happy in the end. Although we may think of being happy as a state of mind, Aristotle thought of it as how you lived your life. In other words, the happiness will not come and go within a couple of minutes or hours. It is a goal that is reached “at the end of one’s life and is a measurement of how well one has lived up to their full potential as a human being” (Shields).
1.) Aristotle begins by claiming that the highest good is happiness (198, 1095a20). In order to achieve this happiness, one must live by acting well. The highest good also needs to be complete within itself, Aristotle claims that, “happiness more than anything else seems complete without qualification, since we always…choose it because of itself, never because of something else (204, 1097b1). Therefore, Aristotle is claiming that we choose things and other virtues for the end goal of happiness. Aristotle goes on to define happiness as a self-sufficient life that actively tries to pursue reason (205, 1098a5). For a human, happiness is the soul pursuing reason and trying to apply this reason in every single facet of life (206, 1098a10). So, a virtuous life must contain happiness, which Aristotle defines as the soul using reason. Next, Aristotle explains that there are certain types of goods and that “the goods of the soul are said to be goods to the fullest extent…” (207, 1098b15). A person who is truly virtuous will live a life that nourishes their soul. Aristotle is saying “that the happy person lives well and does well…the end
The pursuit for happiness has been a quest for man throughout the ages. In his ethics, Aristotle argues that happiness is the only thing that the rational man desires for its own sake, thus, making it good and natural. Although he lists three types of life for man, enjoyment, statesman, and contemplative, it is the philosopher whom is happiest of all due to his understanding and appreciation of reason. Aristotle’s version of happiness is not perceived to include wealth, honor, or trivial
Before describing the close relationship between the good and virtue, we have to define these terms. Virtue has a broader sense than the contemporary understanding we have of it, in the Nicomachean Ethics virtue simply means excellence. Aristotle defines a good by noticing that every action seeks some good. In the Nicomechean Ethics good and end are interchangeable and both mean goal. Having described a good, Aristotle makes a distinction between goods in order to define the latter. So there are two types of goods (1094a10-1094a16), some have an instrumental value, they refer to goods which we seek in order to obtain other goods. For example money is a good however we do not value it for itself but rather in order to obtain something else such as a material product. Other goods are intrinsic, we value them for themselves. For example health would be considered as an intrinsic good since we seek good health for itself. The distinction between instrumental and intrinsic goods enables us to establish a hierarchy of goods and to suppose the existence of a good which would be the highest one. Knowing that there is...
Happiness is the ultimate goal for everyone in life. Aristotle's definition of " happiness is happiness is the activity of the soul in accord with perfect virtue. To become a better person, we must practice virtuous acts regularly. After a while, these acts will become a habit and so the virtuous acts. part of our every day life and the person will be leading a virtuous life.
Aristotle feels we have a rational capacity and the exercising of this capacity is the perfecting of our natures as human beings. For this reason, pleasure alone cannot establish human happiness, for pleasure is what animals seek and human beings have higher capacities than animals. The goal is to express our desires in ways that are appropriate to our natures as rational animals. Aristotle states that the most important factor in the effort to achieve happiness is to have a good moral character, what he calls complete virtue. In order to achieve the life of complete virtue, we need to make the right choices, and this involves keeping our eye on the future, on the ultimate result we want for our lives as a whole. We will not achieve happiness simply by enjoying the pleasures of the moment. We must live righteous and include behaviors in our life that help us do what is right and avoid what is wrong. It is not enough to think about doing the right thing, or even intend to do the right thing, we have to actually do it. Happiness can occupy the place of the chief good for which humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act must be independent of any outside help in satisfying one’s needs and final, that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else and it must be
His philosophical theory was very simple and he wanted to teach people how to be happy. He stated “In all our activities there is an end, which we seek for its own sake, and everything else is a means to this end…Happiness is this ultimate end. It is the end we seek in all that we do.” What Aristotle means is that everything we do in our daily activities and actions is all leading up to the end result which is happiness. For example, I work and attend school full time and everything that I do is sub goals leading towards being a successful person which causes me to be happy. Aristotle says happiness is also found in our feelings. A personal example is I love my family and it makes me happy having people to care about and to support them. Sub goals on the way, such as making an A in a class or finishing college and getting a degree are self-awarding pleasures that create happiness. Those are a few examples that make me happy and doing well and succeeding is the key to happiness. For happiness to happen in general, people need to have a reason or virtue in our lives. That everyone has their strong suites about themselves and we need to express and share them with others to help others grow as well. What I understand from Aristotle’s theories of happiness is that our feelings and good actions and being able to control them is what makes us
Happiness can be viewed as wealth, honour, pleasure, or virtue. Aristotle believes that wealth is not happiness, because wealth is just an economic value, but can be used to gain some happiness; wealth is a means to further ends. The good life, according to Aristotle, is an end in itself. Similar to wealth, honour is not happiness because honour emphases on the individuals who honour in comparison to the honouree. Honour is external, but happiness is not. It has to do with how people perceive one another; the good life is intrinsic to the...