Aristotle articulates the depth of civic ethics by defining a supreme Good, the highest end of a human activity. It’s consensual that happiness is deemed to be a supreme Good. However, there are two types of individuals who view happiness in different manners. Common men are presumably ignorant and choose to relate happiness to pleasure or wealth. They associate themselves with lives of indulgence. Conversely, sophisticated men are labeled the “doers of actions” and live lives of politics. A useless man is one who neither understands himself nor listens to another. Many are convinced honor and virtue determine the amount of goodness in one. Some have lives of contemplation that state people are liked for themselves solely. Aristotle questions …show more content…
It centers among rationality and activity while also considering virtuosity. Goods are separated into three categories: external, relation to the soul and to the body. External prosperity falls under luck while happiness is also considered a blessing. Justice is praised unlike happiness because it’s divine’s gift. The soul consists of two parts: irrational and rational. The irrational soul is vegetative; it circles the concept of nutrition and growth and doesn’t connect to virtue. It also is dictated by the appetitive part in which the soul governs desires. The rationality within the soul controls the impulses.
A sense of completion lies within happiness. A motive that is independent of any other variables is much more complete rather than one that is dependent. In addition, self-sufficiency is positively correlated with completion. For example, one who puts an effort in making a life meaningful on his or own and eliminates any limitations is self-sufficient. Completion and self-sufficiency is what results of an activity directly producing happiness
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Justice as recificatory serves to correct unequal distributions of gain and loss between two people. This appears in cases of injustice such as trade (voluntary) or theft (involuntary). Justice of distribution serves to allocate wealth equally in a civic union. For instance, good will start to receive better than mediocre products. Political justice relies on the law where as domestic justice I depends on respect (5).
Society has made the idea of friendships essential. Apart from family, friends are necessary to have a successful civic, work or school relationship. Similarities between two people and a common interest create a profound relationship between two people. Although they are fun to have, disagreements and conflicts are bound to occur.
Pleasure, utility and character are the three kinds of friendship. Friendship of pleasure is where both individuals are attracted to each other either by looks, personality, qualities, etc. Pleasure of utility is a relationship where there’s an expectation of benefit from each other. Both parties are of importance to one another because of their uses. Lastly, character is the type of friendship that is primarily based on goodness. Both admire each other and want to grow with one
Aristotle accepts that there is an agreement that this chief good is happiness, but that there is a disagreement with the definition of happiness. Due to this argument, men divide the good into the three prominent types of life: pleasure, political and contemplative. Most men are transfixed by pleasure; a life suitable for “beasts”. The elitist life (politics) distinguishes happiness as honour, yet this is absurd given that honour is awarded from the outside, and one’s happiness comes from one’s self. The attractive life of money-making is quickly ruled out by Aristotle since wealth is not the good man seeks, since it is only useful for the happiness of something else.
In consideration to Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle’s view of the great-souled man is that of an individual that represents happiness and obtains the five virtues: wisdom, justice, bravery, self-control, and the overall goodness within an individual (happiness). The magnanimous person is very complex and displays the proper virtues at the proper time, and in the proper way. In addition, the great-souled man accommodates to his surroundings where he is honorable but not boastful in his actions. Aristotle believes that it is only possible to attain happiness within a political organization because happiness represents living well without being concerned with others, they solely live for the truth and not approval.
I would define friendship as complete trust and love between two people. Many people believe that this kind of behavior is reciprocated between two individuals without any expectations. A friend is someone who also provides you with support and whom you can rely on to celebrate special moments with. A friend also comes with many great attributes; such as loyalty, honesty, compassion, trust, and morality. Today’s friend is viewed as someone who shares happiness, common values, history, and equality with another. For example, Aristotle and Cicero both wrote dialogues about friendship and its significance on mankind. Therefore, the key issues that will be discussed are: their views on the similarities of friendship, the differences between friends,
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.
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).
Philosophers have discuss and debate about friendship and the true meaning to be a friend to others Aristotle have given requirements as well as qualities a friend possession within different types of friendships. He debates that a good man does not need friends but the points he brings up proves that a good man can not live a pleasant life in solitary.
Aristotle believes the only way to reach a state of happiness is through virtue. The virtue that is to be practiced is meant to guide our behaviors in society and to learn the meaning of moderation. Aristotle deems human happiness as more then attaining the pleasures of life but satisfying the human potentialities. Reaching such abilities could be seen by making logical choices and being able to choose the needs in life rather then the wants. At this point it shows that Aristotle contends that a society that includes citizens that he believes are of human excellence will reflect the same values upon it’s state.
Aristotle once stated that, “But if happiness be the exercise of virtue, it is reasonable to suppose that it will be the exercise of the highest virtue; and that will be the virtue or excellence of the best part of us.” (481) It is through Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics that we are able to gain insight into ancient Greece’s moral and ethical thoughts. Aristotle argues his theory on what happiness and virtue are and how man should achieve them.
There are many valuable things in life like family, sports, school but what about friendship? To live life without friendship is something no one should ever go through. Friendship is a necessity to living a successful life. Friendship occurs when someone is a supporter, gives assistance, and is attached to someone all the while genuinely taking care of them when they are hurt (The definition of friend, 1995-2002). A good and healthy friendship can be defined fro individuals as when someone has his or her own support system, a friend being loyal, and will always have genuine and mutual trust.
The concept of human good has perplexed many great thinkers alike for centuries. The main hurdle that prevents philosophers from coming up with a concrete definition for the term human good, is the struggle in diagnosing the highest good. Traditionally, happiness has been labeled as the highest human good, however it was the past definition of happiness that Aristotle strays from when he attempts to redefine human good. In the past, even before Aristotle, happiness was defined as just being virtuous. Looking back at a time when the question was endlessly pondered, the same conclusion was drawn.
Friendship is the most wonderful relationship that anyone can have. Ideally a friend is a person who offers love and respect and will never leave or betray us. Friends can tell harsh truths when they must be told. There are four different types of friends: True friends, Convenient friends, Special interest friends, and historical friends. To have friendship is to have comfort. In times of crisis and depression, a friend is there to calm us and to help lift up our spirits.
... our society, where good deeds are preformed with the hope of being rewarded, it is more than evident that personal happiness dominates. Personal happiness is not always bad, however, it just seems that the majority of times in our society it is dominated by self-interest. The domination of self-interest is seen everyday in the modern business world with companies unfairly using monopolies to eliminate their competition and also governments trying to invade other countries or regions in order to maximize their territory. It seems that unless the motive of self-interest is eliminated from the pursuit of happiness, we most likely will not experience the type of well being that Aristotle was describing.
Friendship is a relationship that all the individuals can create by themselves. Though it is not a god gifted relationship like that of the relationship of a mother, father, sister, brother or any of the other family but still it is one of the best relations an individual can possess. People who have true friends consider themselves as the luckiest individuals on earth.
Friendships are one of the most important things you can get out of life. It’s something that everyone has to have because without it we would all go insane. Just think if no one talked to each other and we never made friends, this world would be a ticking time bomb. Studies say human need friendships and love to survive. So friendship is a big part of your life.
According to Aristotle, the good life is the happy life, as he believes happiness is an end in itself. In the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle develops a theory of the good life, also known as eudaimonia, for humans. Eudaimonia is perhaps best translated as flourishing or living well and doing well. Therefore, when Aristotle addresses the good life as the happy life, he does not mean that the good life is simply one of feeling happy or amused. Rather, the good life for a person is the active life of functioning well in those ways that are essential and unique to humans. Aristotle invites the fact that if we have happiness, we do not need any other things making it an intrinsic value. In contrast, things such as money or power are extrinsic valuables as they are all means to an end. Usually, opinions vary as to the nature and conditions of happiness. Aristotle argues that although ‘pleasurable amusements’ satisfy his formal criteria for the good, since they are chosen for their own sake and are complete in themselves, nonetheless, they do not make up the good life since, “it would be absurd if our end were amusement, and we laboured and suffered all our lives for the sake of amusing ourselves.”