Sara López Ruiz Velasco

0254059

Aristotle’s view on happiness

INTRODUCTION 200

Aristotle. We all know who this huge character was, or at least we know parts of Plato’s pupil
through writings, that gives us an idea of his values, history and philosophy. The man was
born in a small town called Stagira. At the age of seventeen he was sent to study in Plato’s
Academy, which was the best place to study in the Greek world. Years later Plato dies and
because of this Aristotle decides it’s his time to depart. Even though this brilliant man moved
to another place, started a life of his own and found new things of his interests, he never
stopped being a philosopher. It was in his blood.

Philip, the king of Macedos, called upon him to be the tutor of his thirteen boy, who
would later become Alexander the Great. Its relationship is quite unclear; some historians
claim that the philosopher was of importance to the life and achievements of Alexander. On
the other hand, some say a very strong relationship could not have been nourished enough
between them because of the limited time they spent as teacher and pupil; only two years.

He kept on writing and opened The Lyceum. A school in which they taught: “botany,
biology, logic, music, mathematics, astronomy, medicine, cosmology, physics, the history of
philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, ethics, theology, rhetoric, political history, government
and political theory, and the arts.” (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2008)

This greek philosopher was the definition of righteous and his idea of what happiness for
humanity is proves it. Let’s have a look at that shall we?

According to the criteria advanced, the final good for human beings must: (i) be pursued for
its own sake (EN 1094a1); (ii) be such that we wish for other things for its sake (EN
1094a19); (iii) be such that we do not wish for it on account of other things (EN 1094a21);
(iv) be complete (teleion), in the sense that it is always choiceworthy and always chosen for
itself (EN 1097a26–33); and finally (v) be self-sufficient (autarkês), in the sense that its
presence suffices to make a life lacking in nothing (EN 1097b6–16). Plainly some candidates
for the best life fall down in the face of these criteria. According to Aristotle, neither the life
of pleasure nor the life of honour satisfies them all. (Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy,
2008)

If it is not pleasure nor honour, then what makes humans satisfied? This was Aristotle’s
question, to which he found an answer; “What does satisfy them all is eudaimonia. [...]
eudaimonia is achieved [...] by fully realizing our natures, by actualizing to the highest
degree our human capacities, and neither our nature nor our endowment of human capacities
is a matter of choice for us. ”(Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy, 2008)
 He means knowing oneself and one’s nature so he/she can act truthfully. To clarify
some doubts this may cause, Aristotle believed fondly on the good side of humanity. He
knew there was evil inside our nature, but was convinced that with reasoning and letting
him/herself be guided by their morality, the good would be achieved. And just then would
happiness be reachable.

Eudaimonia or plenitud accompanied with self-fulfillment, couldn’t be a reality

without some basic nethertheless vital concepts, such as; balance, the tendency of the Greek
thinkers was to take opposite sides on recurrent topics such as happiness. These included
hedonism, or total repression. Aristotle rejected those ideas and offered another one, that’s all
about finding a balance between them. Modesty: recognizing you are good at something but
also when you are not. Self esteem: Aristotle explained the necessity of knowing oneself so
that you could be at peace and truthful to yourself and others and not lose what makes you
unique. Being social: human need, he stated we were meant to live in societies and that
humans need to build relationships with others to live better. To be just with you and the
others, and to practice self control because always giving in to your impulses can lead you to
have an incomplete life. The last four, in my opinion, don’t need further development, so here
they are: tolerance, generosity, grace, and strength.

Time has passed, people have moved on and humanity has changed… Or has it?

Our nature will never stop being what it has been since our beginning, what I mean by
this is, human nature can’t be modified like DNA, it's something so much more complicated
and intangible but still very present in our every move. That’s why these ideas are still very
important to us.
Happiness is not a means to an end, but the end itself. “When he [the philosopher]
learns from scientific psychology that happiness, which is a starting-point of ethics, is
rational activity in accord with complete virtue, he knows that this is what he must defend.”
(Bolton, R. The Epistemological Basis of Aristotelian Dialectic) The key words are ethics and
virtue. As previously mentioned, Aristotle was a firm believer in morality and rationalism
leading humanity to a happy life, not just the emotion but the state of happiness, and all
psychologists and philosophers have done till now is confirm he was quite right.

Since the beginning of time, we humans have been trying to find what makes us
happy and avoid what makes us suffer. But looking at our today’s society one might be
confused, millions of people being miserable, having every chance to be happy but lacking in
virtues, a good morality and mindset. Our take on happiness in today’s reality is: being rich,
famous, filled with carnal pleasure, trips, clothes… Not saying all of this is negative, but it is
quite obvious it is not making people truly happy and complete.

What is really funny is we spend our lives trying to make happiness last and
repeatedly fail even though the recipe to make it our way of living has been under our noses
all this time. Now that we have it a click away, are we going to follow it? Or are we going to
keep making lame excuses to why we are sad, incomplete, miserable?
CONCLUSION

de la Filosofía, H. E. D. D. S. D. U. E. (2015, 24 septiembre). idUS - La naturaleza

humana en Aristóteles. idUS - Depósito de Investigación Universidad de Sevilla. Recuperado
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Lear, G. R. (2004). Happy Lives and The Highest Good. Princeton University.

AAAAAALópez, E. (2022, 1 febrero). Consejos de Aristóteles sobre cómo ser feliz. La

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Reeve, C. D. C. (2012). Action, Contemplation and Happiness. Harvard University.

AAAAAA Robert Bolton, “The Epistemological Basis of Aristotelian Dialectic,” in From

Puzzles to Principles? Essays on Aristotle’s Dialectic, ed. May Sim (Lanham, Md.:
Lexington Books, 1999), pp. 57–105

AAAAAAShields, Christopher, "Aristotle", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

(Spring 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
<https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2022/entries/aristotle/>.