What is happiness to you?

     

 

What is happiness to you?

 

  My paper is on Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, which is about happiness and what that happiness means to each individual because though some may agree happiness is the result of being well with living well, everyone has their own definition of what happiness really is. Some find happiness is with virtue, others wealth, and or pleasure.  Just as the definition differs so does the end to happiness because every action or activity must have an end. We all aim to complete something whether it is a house, a goal, an action and or activity.

  When reading I was intrigued how Aristotle compared so many things, that when together made sense such as, integrity and how that is something found within a person’s moral virtue, which is found in the soul not the body. He is an interesting philosopher and when comparing to Plato and Thoreau everything all made sense.  How in Henry David Thoreau’s Walden he was at his happiest when in complete solitude, and as for Plato’s Apology his character Socrates was truthful within his moral integrity until the very end.  My favorite line in Aristotle’s reading is as followed:

“when isolated makes life desirable and lacking in nothing; and such we think happiness to be; and further we think it most desirable of all things, without being counted as one good among others” (pg.567). To have nothing is the greatest happiness of all as a person doesn’t have distraction, or things, but the things within oneself. That is the greatest of all goods.

paper:
                                                What is happiness to you?

        Aristotlelian Ethics: Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) was written by a student of Plato’s who is said to take his own thoughts and ideas and become one of the greatest philosophers of all time. His works include Metaphysics, Categories, Physics, and many others in addition to the Nicomachean Ethics.

        Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is about the pursuit of aiming towards something in order to come to an end. Some aim for happiness, where most can agree happiness is associated with being well and doing well. Though they can agree the pursuit is happiness what defines happiness differs from person to person. Some believe happiness is the pursuit of wealth, pleasure, or honour, but people differ when it comes to these things such as, with health when he is ill, and with wealth when he is poor. But with every good there is an end, and these ends differ depending on the person and their opinion. Some look at good as happiness ending in an activity or action, while others look at good/happiness ending in the products apart from the activity or action such as the feeling a person receives from achieving that something.

        Where there is an action or activity there is goodness, there are three kinds of goods which are divided into three classes “some described as external, others relating to soul or to body; we call those that relate to soul most properly and truly goods, and psychical actions and activities we call as relating to the soul” (pg.568). Human virtue is of the soul not of the body; and happiness is the activity of the soul.  Some identify being happy with virtue, where being happy is an activity of the soul in harmony to virtue. There are different kinds of virtues for some virtues are intellectual and others moral, philosophical wisdom and understanding and practical wisdom being intellectual, open-mindedness and self-restraint as being moral.

        In comparison to Aristotle’s human virtue of the soul, his teacher Plato’s character Socrates in the Apology, expressed bravery, integrity of moral virtue of the soul within his own truth. Socrates who was sentenced to death by the council, who believed he was offending them by teaching the young about asking questions, and allowing them to be open-minded. Socrates despite knowing his fate would potentially lead him to death did not fear it, nor did he tell the council what they wanted to hear in order to be found not guilty. He believed his moral truth, his integrity was more important and worth- while than living knowing he betrayed himself. He wanted to die knowing he was a good man with good values, who did good things for others and lived a happy life.          

        In addition to Plato’s comparison, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Where I lived, and what I lived for, was about Thoreau himself searching for happiness in a house. He found the house that brought him true happiness in Walden Pond, after having lived at different places for a short period of time. It was isolated and secluded where he was in the midst of nature, and was alone with his thoughts and ideas. This relates to Aristotle’s self-sufficient definition of happiness “when isolated makes life desirable and lacking in nothing; and such we think happiness to be; and further we think it most desirable of all things, without being counted as one good among others” (pg.567). Being self-sufficient is the end to an action and happiness is something final.

        Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics on knowledge demonstrates that a man who has received an all- around education is a good and knowledgeable man, but a young man who has not finished his education is inexperienced and uninformed in the actions of life. The end result to the man with an education is knowledge which is profitable, but the young man who would rather follow his passions, his study will be in vain and unprofitable because the end result will not be knowledge. Every action or activity as previously mentioned aims at some good so though the young man’s end result will not be knowledge, he will still gain principle knowledge for his actions which will be beneficial.

       Plato’s Apology shows Socrates being condemned for teaching knowledge to others in a different way that appears bothersome to the council before him. He is teaching his young students to be open-minded and to ask questions to subjects that may need answers in order to broaden their education and mind. To ask questions, a person is widening their horizons, which should be a good thing, but he is found guilty and sentenced to death for it.  His young students according to Aristotle will not be knowledgeable in terms of profit and experience, but they will be knowledgeable in terms of principle in the sense they will have gained insight into other worldly actions, such as the world around them and to not be afraid to ask questions. As Aristotle has explained for every action there is goodness and where there is goodness there is happiness.   

        I am in agreement with Aristotle that happiness is different to everyone. A person can be fulfilled doing both an action and an activity. Happiness is virtuous as it is pleasurable and self-sufficient. Happiness is the end result to something, as I yearn to achieve something good from an activity. When helping others by bringing joy and goodness, that to me is happiness in the sense I have achieved something good. Moral virtue is something I can relate to as I always try to have an open-mind and enhance my education. Happiness is whatever a person makes of it and the end result they gain from whatever activity or action they are doing.