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Aristotle's nature of happiness
Aristotle's nature of happiness
Aristotle's nature of happiness
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Happiness, a complicated nine letter word. Many have sought to narrow down the definition of happiness, but have found it a difficult task to do. As I started researching the word happiness I found that happiness lies in the eye of the beholder; everyone has their own definition. Influencing the human body mentally, emotionally, and physically happiness has strong attributes; not just on ones’ feelings but on their overall well-being. Lazy fall days, colorful leaves, cooler weather, birds singing, frogs croaking, crickets chirping, relaxing to the sounds of nature. Waves of water crashing, fishing, telling stories around a campfire, making s’mores, cookouts, and time spent making memories with my family and friends; this is how I define the …show more content…
To them happiness is concentered a continuous act of a good life. A life without suffering, full of pleasure, prosperity, things of material wealth. However, there has to be more to happiness than this. Happiness has to come from within, it cannot be bought. Everyone seeks happiness. It is not measurable, profitable, nor is it something that is tradable; so, happiness cannot possible be bought. The old cliché “Money cannot buy happiness” is a true fact that many people say all the time. A man with all the riches of the world cannot buy happiness. However, a poor man, without a cent to his name can obtain happiness if he wants, because happiness comes from within. Aristotle, an ancient Greek Philosopher and scientist proposed the idea of Eudaimonic Happiness nearly two and a half years ago. His idea was essentially that to obtain happiness one must practice being engaged in the process of happiness. Aristotle is known for the statement “Happiness, it’s living in a way that fulfills our purpose” …show more content…
One of those studies results showed a change in the human body’s genome system. In 2007 a professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago John Cacioppo, and professor of medicine at the University of California, Dr. Steve Cole, along with many others, collaborated together and identified a link between loneliness and how genes express themselves. The results were astonishing; it appears that the brain is wired to equate loneliness with danger. Making the human body go into a defensive state, causing the body to have inflammation promoting the growth of cancer cells and the development of plaque in the arteries of the heart, disabling brain cells which causes neurodegenerative disease. After administering several studies Dr. Cole, declared that the lack of eudaimonic happiness was as fatal to human health as smoking or obesity. While attending Dr. Coles conference about his new discovery on loneliness; Dr. Barbara Fredrickson, a noted positive psychologist from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had an idea. She wondered if loneliness could have such a detrimental effect on the human body, what could positive experiences such as happiness have on the human body. So, after the conference Dr. Fredrickson sent Dr. Cole an email asking him if he would be interested in collaborating with her on a new
Happiness has always been a desirable goal throughout our lives, but each actions we take might just affect the happiness of others. When humans seek happiness, we always seek for things that make us feel alive, or things that brings us the greatest comfort. Our contentment comes with the act of selfishness since we choose to prioritize our happiness above all other. We willingly classify happiness in two different types of meaning, both physical and mental happiness. People ought not be in title to happiness because it is classified in general as a physical desire by many people. Contentment is always known to be a physical satisfaction in life instead of a self-inducing satisfaction for life.
Happiness is a goal every human pursues, yet the ways in which it is pursued differs amongst people. Some believe prosperity will bring them happiness. Others believe material, power, fame, success, or love will bring them happiness. No matter what one believes is the right way to conquer this goal, every person will take their own unique path in an attempt to find it. But what is happiness? Happiness is often viewed as a subjective state of mind in which one may say they are happy when they are on vacation with friends, spending time with their family, or having a cold beer on the weekend while basking in the sun. However, Aristotle and the Stoics define happiness much differently. In Aristotle’s
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist who understood happiness as a common goal shared among all humans, happiness was the achievement of human flourishing something he called ‘eudaimonia’ (Sober, 2009). Eudaimonia translates as the perfect happiness, human excellence and fulfillment, a universal interest to everyone, and a quality of goodness that enables a person to be able to reflect on their life and be happy with it (Brook, 2015, p. 315).
Happiness is the main focus in life and should always be held most high according to Aristotle. He spends a great deal of time explaining how to achieve this we will see that, Aristotle was sure a genuinely happy life required a combination of many things. Which included physical and mental health? Bringing about a scientific way to look at happiness in its entirety.
Happiness can be understood as the moral goal of life or can be unpredictable and is something we create from ourselves and by ourselves. The idea of happiness was known as something we nurture on our own and is a state of emotion. Completing our everyday goals will soon bring us happiness, which seems to be very important to most humans and is what makes life worth living, but this is not certain. This conception of Eudemonia was common in ancient Greece as it is currently today. Aristotle had what he thought was an ideal activity for all those who wanted to live life to the fullest, be happy, and have purpose.
From the survey psychologists made, it seems that what makes us happy may not always bring more meaning, and vice versa. Feeling happy was strongly correlated with seeing life as easy, pleasant and free from difficult or troubling events, while none of these things were correlated with a greater sense of meaning. They also find that money is positively correlated with greater levels of happiness. However, having enough money seems to make little difference in life’s sense of meaning. Therefore, perhaps instead of saying that “Money doesn’t buy happiness,” we ought to say that “Money doesn’t buy meaning.” Additionally, in Baumeister’s study, “givers” reported higher levels of meaning in their lives compared to the “takers”. The researchers also point out
Contrary to belief, genuine happiness is very rarely found at the bottom of a shopping basket or on the leather seats of a brand new car. Often we hear the cliché saying “Money can’t buy happiness” but this is in fact true. Whilst the elation and delight brought from finally owning a wanted item is extraordinary, you must remind yourself that your happiness should not become dependant upon your ownership of this item. Being happy is not something you can purchase from a shop or car dealership, it is the way you take on life. Unfortunately, happiness does not have its own aisle at shops and never will.
Happiness, a short word but with great importance and meaning. When we look around and ask other people what their goal in life is, the most common answer, based on many surveys, is to be happy. Why are there so many unhappy people? Is happiness difficult to find and to achieve to its fullest level? Nowadays, our society is so consumed in the material aspects of life: work, social media, and appearance that we forget to take a break from our busy lives to appreciate what is around that can make us happy. For example, spending time with the people we love. Happiness should be shared within our families and throughout the community. With little details we can make someone else happy and at the same time, we'll be making ourselves happy as well.
According to Webster dictionary the word Happiness in defined as Enjoying, showing, or marked by pleasure, satisfaction, or joy. People when they think of happiness, they think about having to good feeling inside. There are many types of happiness, which are expressed in many ways. Happiness is something that you can't just get it comes form your soul. Happiness is can be changed through many things that happen in our every day live.
What exactly is happiness anyway? Happiness is when you feel complete and satisfied. It is when you’re content with where you are and what you have. It is the joy of doing something you love, or spending time with someone you love. It is an emotion and the best one yet. Money can easily make a person temporarily happy with the possessions it can buy, but true happiness is more than that. People can have everything material wise and still not be happy. Sure it can buy you many things, but the happiness from it is only temporary and limited. There’s only so much happiness you can buy with money. Money can easily buy you food, a clock, a house, education, make-up or medication; however it can’t buy you nutrition, time, a home, knowledge, beauty or health. It can buy you infatuation, but not love, acquaintances but not friendship and hierarchy but not respect. People spend their entire lives trying to make more and more money thinking that it means success. They neglect family and friends, don’t care about who they take down to reach their ...
But in this debate, one question still raises its head - What is happiness? Happiness is not actually leading a luxurious life, but the luxury of living a life. Happiness is not actually about expanding your business, but it lies in expanding the horizons of life. Happiness is not having a meal in the most famous restaurant, but having it with your most beloved family. It does not lie in attending honorable parties, but to attend a party with honor.
Happiness comes in all forms and in a variety of meanings. Everyone can debate their perceptions on what true happiness is. The general idea is that it’s a state of mind where a person is at pleasure with their life or at a certain moment. People argue that the way to true happiness is money or finally getting that job they always dreamt of. They are narrow-minded to not think of something that will mend them happy now, in the moment. If they were to die tomorrow what is in existence today that would make them truly happy? Being content with your life is important to have, it helps a person accept life struggles and find the bright side of situations. For me, true happiness is simply being alive —breathing air is the most amazing experience, and being able to comply with my life.
What is happiness? Different people have different ideas. Some people are rich, and they think they are happy. Other people have many friends, so they feel happy. Still others are happy because their lives are meaningful. Happiness attracts everyone. For children, happiness often suggests eating good food and playing with toys. For a stamp collector, stamps bring more delight than meals. And for a scientist, a discovery or an invention rather than anything else gives him the greatest satisfaction.
I believe that happiness is the key to living a good and prosperous life. Through all of the sadness and hate in the world, happiness gives me hope. It gives not only me, but others hope and joy. Happiness gives us something to hold onto, therefore we cherish it as much as we can.
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...