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Aristotle on the nature of happiness
Aristotle and happiness and virtue
Aristotle on the nature of happiness
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Eudaimonia and Human Flourishing
Aristotle describes three types of life in his search for human flourishing: lives of gratification, politics, and contemplation. He contends that there is a single Idea of Good that all men seek, and he finds that happiness, or eudaimonia, best fits his criteria. Aristotle investigates the human purpose to find how happiness is best achieved, and finds that a life of activity and contemplation satisfies our purpose, achieving the most complete happiness in us. Aristotle is correct regarding the necessity of activity, but restricts the theory to only the life of study. We will reject this restriction, and instead allow any life of virtue and productivity to substitute for Aristotle’s life of study. One primary means of remaining active to achieve happiness includes loving friendships, which only happen to the virtuous. Thus human flourishing is living a life of virtue, activity, and productivity.
Aristotle proposes that we have a single Idea of Good which is both complete and self-sufficient, chosen entirely for itself, and that end is happiness. He must establish these three claims:
Idea of Good Claim 1) We have ends which we choose for themselves.
Idea of Good Claim 2) That there is only one such end.
Idea of Good Claim 3) That end is happiness.
He argues for Idea of Good Claim 1) as follows (Irwin 173):
1.1. If we choose everything because of something else, desire will be empty and futile.
1.2. We have a gut feeling that some desires are not empty and futile.
1.3. Therefore, we do not choose everything because of something else.
1.4. Therefore we choose something for its own sake.
1.5. What we choose for its own sake, therefore, must be the best good.
Th...
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...nt role in helping us remain active and virtuous. We can apply a broader application of this search for happiness by allowing lives other than that of study and contemplation to be pursued, as long as virtue and loving friendships are present. To arrive at this conclusion we postulated two of Aristotle’s premises (see Postulate 1 and Postulate 2); allowing these lead us to a worthwhile map of how one may reach eudaimonia, the Idea of Good which follows from the postulates. Overlaying a life of productivity for Aristotle’s requirement of study, we have achieved a valid argument, assuming the postulates, for a means of human flourishing. One should live one’s life with virtue, activity, and productivity.
Work Cited:
All references are made to Nicomachean Ethics, written by Aristotle, translated by Terrence Irwin. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 1999.
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...that happiness is not found in amusement for it is too incongruous to end in amusement, and that our efforts and sufferings would be aimed at amusing ourselves. A flourishing life—a happy life, is one that consists of numerous requirements having been fulfilled to some degree. These include those things that preserve and maintain physical welfare such as, a certain level of material wellbeing, health, satisfaction, good familial and friendship bonds, and a comely appearance. Additionally, certain intellectual and moral needs ought to be met as well. It is a well-ordered and just state and community that preserves the freedom to have such a life. Thus, eudaimonia—happiness—for Aristotle is an inclusive notion consisting of life in accordance with intellectual and moral virtues, rational contemplation, and securing certain physical needs, such that one is flourishing.