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Money as a source of happiness
Aristotle's Theory Of The Good Life
Money as a source of happiness
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What Makes A Great Person Great? What really makes a great person a great person? We all probably have our own ideas about what we think makes a person great. One may think that greatness stems from a giving attitude, another may define greatness as money and power and success, the argument of what makes someone great has been going on for hundreds of years, with great philosophers like Aristotle and Nietzsche offering their own opinions on what makes a great person really great. Overall, after examining the different ideas about what makes someone great, all we can do is decide for ourselves what we personally think makes someone great. Taking a look at Aristotle’s school of thought, we can begin to understand what he believed made a great person great. Aristotle believed in the idea of happiness being defined as “eu zên” Which translates to “living well” Aristotle also believed that true happiness was “eudaimon”. This meant to live in a way that was pleasing to the gods. Although most people today do …show more content…
That being a truly great person means that you have both happiness and success in life. You can achieve greatness in your life by finding success through what makes you happy. I also believe that being truly great is to be a great person to other people. In order to truly be a great person, you must not only be concerned with yourself, but also with others. In order to be someone who is considered truly great in life, you must also help others to strive to be great in their lives. A mark of a truly great person is someone who can find happiness in bringing others happiness. According to my own beliefs, finding true happiness in life stems from being able to find your own happiness through helping others. My true definition of a great person is someone who is successful and happy in their own lives, and helps others to achieve that same happiness and
For Aristotle, happiness is defined as “an activity of soul in accordance with complete excellence... (Aristotle 1102a). This means that actions exercised through, and guided by, human virtues turns out to be a good that is an “... activity of soul in conformity to excellence...” (Aristotle 1098b). Therefore, the characteristic allowing a person to perform well is virtue. To further explain this concept you can use the example of
He believes that someone can 't just decide whether they were happy or not, but rather that there were certain virtues that if preformed would enable somebody to be happy. Virtues acts such as courage, temperance, wittiness, modesty, patience and friendliness are a few of these virtues. In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle defines virtue as “a characteristic involving choice, and that it consists in observing the mean relative to us, a mean which is defined by a rational principle, such as a man of practical wisdom would use to determine
Greatness can be defined in a many ways. The term “great” can refer to the size of something compared to something else. It could also mean that it is unusual in degree, power or intensity. Regarding a person, to be great means to be important, remarkable, outstanding and highly significant. Many leaders and actions throughout history can be defined by using the single word “great." It could be said that the presidency of Abraham Lincoln was the greatest yet or that the war of 1812 had a great outcome. Some could argue that to be great, you must be above all in everything that you do. Benjamin Franklin was in fact a great man. His accomplishments fit the definition of the word “great” in many ways. Benjamin Franklin proved his greatness in
Aristotle believes that happiness rests within an absolutely final and self-sufficient end. The reasoning behind this theory is that every man is striving for some end, and every action he does must be due to this desire to reach this final end. He believes that in order for a man to be happy, he must live an active life of virtue, for this will in turn bring him closer to the final end. Although some may believe that these actions that the man chooses to take is what creates happiness, Aristotle believes that these actions are just a mere part of the striving toward the final end. I believe that Aristotle’s great-souled man is the highest virtue of character; His actions are never too extreme and he is appropriate in all his manners. The magnanimous person is within the intermediate state of character. “The deficient person is pusillanimous, and the person who goes to excess is vain” (§35). The magnanimous person surrounds himself with great things. The great things occurs when “he receives great honors from excellent pe...
Greatness is nothing more than a vague idea with the understanding that someone has achieved a level of success, admiration, or inspiration that has significances upon our ideas and values. The issue with greatness is it can be misleading and applied to people and situations that when looked back upon or seen from a different light are not elements we want to see mixed in with the development of these ideas or values. Ignatius of Loyola has these characterizes where when viewed as parts and sections it presents itself with concepts that would appear to be of greatness, but truly strengths of guise revealed to be mere illusions and nonsensical strengths and characteristics.
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.
Hoosiers once said " If you put your effort and concentration into playing to your own potential, to be the best that you can be. . . in my book we are going to be winners". This quotation is relevant to the question of What does success mean to me? I believe success is about learning what you are capable of to achieve your full potential being successful in your life. For you have a better understanding, I will explain success is about being achievable in your own way and being able to see yourself grow in your personal life and perspective of how you see yourself becoming successful. Success is not only about the choices you make to become successful, but about how you approach the way to become successful.
... or power or fame. The path to attain these goals is often filled with corruption, heartless doings, and unsympathetic forces. To see past material possessions and to crush one's ego and its self-centeredness should be sought. To accept one's lot in life and attempt to not control forces outside of one's power or nature should be admired. Being concerned with one's family as a primary responsibility and acting accordingly should be hailed an accomplishment. To face an evil force sweeping into one's reality and being able to hold onto one's morals and values in spite of it, an achievement.
Greatness is not something that you are born with; it is something that you obtain. Many people have the power to be great. The simplest way to define how a person is great is by what they did. People who are of significant importance or are outstanding are great because they are known for their contributions. For instance, Edgar Allan Poe is a great man. He is a great and amazing individual for how he had contributed to literature. He is vastly known for his literature and poems that have lived for many years after he pasted. He was an awesome critic, so much so that people would ask him to revise their work whether it be poetry, a novel they had been working on, or any written piece of work. Poe is considered great because if it weren’t for him, our world would be without detective genre. Edgar Allan Poe can be looked at as great through his work, the life he lived, and how he died.
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
It was Aristotle’s belief that everything, including humans, had a telos or goal in life. The end result or goal was said to be happiness or “eudaimonia”. He explained that eudaimonia was different for each person, and that each had a different idea of what it meant. Further, he said that people must do things in moderation, but at the same time do enough. The theory, of “the golden mean of moderation” was the basis to Aristotle's idea of the human telos and concluded that living a virtuous life must be the same for all people. Aristotle maintained that the natural human goal to be happy could only be achieved once each individual determined his/her goal. A person’s telos is would usually be what that individual alone can do best. Aristotle described the humans as "rational animals" whose telos was to reason. Accordingly, Aristotle thought that in order for humans to be happy, they would have to be able to reason, and to be governed by reason. If a person had difficulty behaving morally or with ethics, he was thought to be “imperfect”. Moral virtue, a principle of happiness, was the ability to evade extremes in behavior and further to find the mean between it and adequacy. Aristotle’s idea of an ideal state was one where the populous was able to practice eth...
Aristotle rejects the idea of universal happiness by explaining how Plato does not incorporate the large number of variants. Aristotle believes that good is not a single, common universal, because what it is to be good is particular to the essence of the individual. One might also argue that other common factors associated with happiness were wealth, pleasure, knowledge, and honor. Aristotle disagrees and found each of these limited to the notion of the good of man. Some benefits that may motivate them to seek better opportunities within their career may be the thought of money bringing happiness and also they will practice living the good life. Developing a good character requires a strong effort of will to do the right thing, even in difficult situations. The general idea that happiness is a result of the wealth is skewed from reality. Wealth is a means to happiness, not actual happiness, one who is wealthy, but is unable to actually use the money is not happy. Aristotle feels the good for man is something that is not dependent on anything else, so being wealthy is not something desirable. Happiness is not pleasurable sensations that can be gained or lost, it is what we seek when acting and is a condition of a person over a lifetime, not at one
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
The complexity of the term success in unbounded, with little to no restraints on how the term can be construed to the liking of the one doing the defining, however, true success will always be classified by the basic principles of morality, happiness and altruism. Unfortunately, many people aspiring to success in modern society are driven by the most luxurious objects that are present in society, but these are unfulfilling and short-lived. To be truly successful, one must not only benefit themselves in the present, but benefit the entirety of the human race for generations to proceed.
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...