Glaucon's Challenge Eudaimonism

In this essay I will defend the claim that happiness in the terms of Eudaimonism is not a sufficient enough argument to answer Glaucon’s Challenge. In the first section, I will explain the challenge by describing the different classifications of goods and how Glaucon’s definition of virtue places it at the lowest category. In the second section I will explain the notion of happiness in terms of Eudaimonism and how it relates to the challenge. In the final section I will explain how Julia Annas’ connects virtue and happiness via Eudaimonism to answer Glaucon’s Challenge, but how her response is not sufficient enough to elevate virtue to a higher level of goodness. In Plato’s Republic, the character Glaucon presents a challenge to his mentor

He uses an example of a person who lives a completely just life, but the perception that everyone has about this person is that they are unjust. This person would suffer tremendously. On the other hand, if there was a person who had the opposite circumstances of acting unjustly but being perceived as just, that person would live a life filled with pleasure. He summarizes his point perfectly stating “…one should not want to be just, but just to be believed to be just.” He continues, “…it is really the unjust person who does not want to be believed to be unjust, but to actually be so, because he bases his practice on the truth about things and does not allow reputation to regulate his life (Plato

Annas explains that “this is a global way of thinking about my life, (123).” This means that we have the opportunity to take inventory of all the things that are missing in our lives and set goals which will determine the way we act. She explains how these goals such as a family or a career often follow a linear path that has an indeterminate ending point of happiness (Annas 124). Possibly the most important notion of happiness here is that “[it] is active: it is a matter of how you do whatever it is you do, how you live your life in whatever circumstances you find yourself as you start to reflect about your life (Annas 130).” This global, active account of happiness is also clearly distinguished from simple pleasure (Annas