Arts assignment essay on: Ethics of Aristotle
Happiness is the complete stable good which is to be desired for itself and satisfies all the desires of human beings with no mixing of any sort of evil( get rid of this sentence. It is wrong and it has nothing to do with the essay question. The first sentence of the essay needs to directly address the essay question). Aristotle is one of the greatest Greek philosophers of all time. His writing covers various subjects such as theatre, music, metaphysics, rhetoric, poetry, government, ethics, zoology and biology (This is completely irrelevant. Your essay did not ask you to talk about Aristotle’s biography. You HAVE to stick to the essay question). Aristotle’s writings created a comprehensive western philosophy which comprised of logic, aesthetics, morality, politics and metaphysics. He was one of the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy and western science. One of the great works of Aristotle was on the influential works present in the Nicomachean Ethics, where he aptly presents the theory of happiness and now is still very much relevant over 2300 years (Ackrill, J 1981). Happiness is the end of the human nature. The good is desired for its own sake and involves teleological system of actions. It is an activity which is desirable in itself. Moreover, Eudaemonia is the activity of the soul achieved through arête of virtues, excellence and is characterized by doing well in the affairs of the world. Happiness is an activity involving intellectual and moral arête. Arete or virtue is the mean between both extremes of excess and defective in regards to an action or feeling. It is the disposition which is developed by proper exercising the capacity. The man is the relative to the circumstances and individual. People have the innate capacity for good character which is eventually developed through practice (philosophy.lander.edu 2009) (proper reference please). This essay focuses on the claims of Aristotle on happy life as being an excellent rational activity. Furthermore, this essay focuses on Aristotle’s account of happiness.
The ancient Greeks have a different viewpoint on happiness and Aristotle spoke of achievement of eudaimonia, which is translated as happiness. Eudaimonia is not an emotional state but is more about well-being and fulfillment of potential to the fullest to become the best version (this is very bad grammar). According to Kraut(1979),he describes the perspective of happiness by Aristotelian by knowing the difference between leading a happy life and feeling happy. This includes recognition of the individual’s reality and signifying the high standards a person entails for being happy. Annas(2004) believes that happiness is the result of linear progression. This can happen after sorting their priorities and knowing what matters first and the want to achieve. This might not be the result of work that might give happiness but working and earnings for the goal is essential.
Aristotle gives a general taxonomy of various moral virtues and mentions that happiness involves various components. First, is the life of gratification, comfort, pleasure, philosophical life and life of money-making which are proponents for pleasant and happy life. Second, is desiring and attaining good things for healthy living and well-being. Goods may be external goods such as fame, honor, power, friends and wealth, good of soul such as education, knowledge, recreation, friendship, appreciation and artistic creativity, goods of the body such as physical strength, good looks, dexterity, athleticability, life and health, goods of social life such as generosity, magnanimity, magnificenece, (3.nd.edu n.d). Aristotle views that certain goods are vital preconditions for happiness whereas others are the embellishments for the promotion of virtuous and good life. Exercise and possession of the virtues are the core elements for happiness. Thus, the virtuous persons can never be miserable and can never attain happiness even in the misfortune phase which can keep the person from being blessed or happy. Happiness combines all the elements together.
Aristotle account in illustrated in Eudemian and Nicomachean Ethics. Eudaimonia is doing various activity and exhibition of arête or excellence with respect to reason. The concept of eudaimonia is derived from Aristotle’s view of rationality existing in human beings and this involves exercising the rational capacities in the highest degrees. Eudaimonia is gained when humans develop their human capacity properly for attainment of arête through reasoning. According to Aristotle, happiness requires action and the activity for having disposition to behave in a certain right way. He thinks that for exercising the dispositions requires exhibition of capacities of reasoning. Eudaimonia requires both character traits and activity. For living in accordance with reasoning requires attaining excellence in its use. He also mentions that human being have the rational capacity for performing various functions requires reasoning for attaining excellence (newworldencyclopedia.org 2008). For example a person becoming a psychologist requires the ability for being highly attentive and exercising practical wisdom for performing various actions.
Aristotle makes certain assumption on the character of human soul. He divides into the part that governs by reason and part which has to be morally unresponsive to any reason. These are virtues and the difference among virtues emulates the differences among the various functions to reasons and various passions. The virtues are the habits for the soul which expresses correct reasons. These needs to be acquired through habituation and constant practice. This is difficult to attain, thus a good upbringing is vital for acting and feeling correctly. The practice of virtue is equated to happiness and the act of achieving moderation and balance. This brought the highest pleasure and the way of life led to the greatest long-term value (coachingtohappiness.com n.d). Thus achieving all the virtues would result in happiness according to Aristotle.
Aristotle enshrines happiness as being a central to all human life and a goal for themselves. According to his philosophy happiness is cultivated and developed through virtue. He was fully convinced that a genuine happy life needed the attainment and fulfillment of various range of conditions including the mental and physical well-being. Thus he introduced the science of happiness in the classical sense. Aristotle also argues that by maintaining the mean or balance was the way of achieving the virtue. But according to Buddha, the mean is the way of attaining peace and is in negotiation between sensual pleasure and asceticism (Pursuit of Happiness 2013). The key questions Aristotle focuses is regarding the ultimate purpose of existence of human and the end goals for directing the all the activities of humans. People seeking pleasure, wealth and good reputation has some value attached to it and to reach the ultimate end, an act needs to be final and self-sufficient. Aristotle in his philosophy claims that every person agrees on happiness being the end which meets all the requirements and desiring pleasure, money and honor makes us believe that it would bring happiness (sparknotes.com 2012) Happiness in Greek language is known as ‘eudaimonia’ in ancient language. Aristotle feels that happiness in the end goal which composes of totality in one’s life and in modern era is considered as subject state of mind. Happiness is gained or lost in few hours and measures the ultimate value of life as lived with full potential.
The ethics of Aristotle is referred to as the ethics of virtue and it focuses on development of character and acquisition of virtues such a justice, courage, prudence, benevolence and prudence and not focus on various duties of obligations. The doctrine of virtue is referred to as the Golden mean which is the mid of deficiency and extreme. Example includes courage is considered as the mean regarding the feeling of fear and exists between cowardice which is excess and rashness which is too little, benevolence is the mean between not giving to anyone and giving too much. Thus according to Aristotle, humans need to be moderate in all things while exercising all virtues. The mean indicates the relative to ourselves. Aristotle asserts that people are innately born with weaker will thus continuous practice is essential for development of various virtues. Aristotle thought of developing of virtuous character through maintaining a healthy body (Pursuit of Happiness 2013). Maintaining healthy body is maintaining balance between different qualities of dry, moist, hot and cold. The objective is to maintain a healthy balance among various elements through appropriate diet and training. The health of soul is exhibiting passion which can bring about passion and injurious to mental well-being. Thus the healthy path is the middle path (Pursuit of Happiness 2013) .Also the goodness of character is the condition of the soul which chooses the mean as relative. This mean is determined by rule.
For explaining human happiness in one’s life, Aristotle draws from the nature’s hierarchical view. There exist four different kinds of things which exist for a purpose. This includes minerals which are metals, rocks and other lifeless things. The goal of these things is to come to rest as they are stupid because they are inanimate objects having no soul. The second thing is vegetation, i.e. wildlife and plants. As plants seek growth and nourishment, they have the soul and are said to be satisfied when the goals are attained. The third thing are animals which are the creatures belonging to the animal kingdom. They have high level of life (Pursuit of Happiness 2013). The animals seek reproduction and pleasure. The last thing Aristotle explains is human beings. The human beings are different from the animal kingdom and are capable of acting according to the principles and take be accountable for their actions. Humans have a unique function for reasoning and this helps the human beings in solving problems and brings about qualitatively fulfilled and satisfied life in humans. Exercising the rational capacity helps in perfecting the human being’s nature. Not just seeking pleasure would bring happiness but channeling the physical urges in ways which are appropriate to rational human beings. Aristotle defines happiness as the function of man to live a certain kind of life implying a rational principle and performing a good and noble work with excellence and then happiness turns out to be the activity of the human soul and is associated with virtue. Having a good moral character or virtue will help in achieving happiness. Possessing all the virtues and having the appropriate wealth, health, friends and knowledge will bring about enrichment of the human life and perfection in the human nature by performing actions for greater good. Nowadays, the culture of instant gratification seems to be predominant in the society but in order to achieve and live a life of complete virtue, it is vital that people make the right choices, keeping in mind about the future and living a whole life. Aristotle also focuses on the concept of weakness of will or akrasia. This asserts that seeing the temporary prospect of great pleasure obstructs the perception of people on what is truly good and also this natural or the conventional disposition can be managed and fixed through education and having the constant objective of perfecting and attaining the perfect virtue (Pursuit of Happiness 2013). Another activity according to Aristotle needs to be practiced by Aristotle to live a happy and satisfied life is intellectual contemplation. Contemplation is the highest activity which discovers and refines virtues. Humans have rational nature and perfection requires rational reflection where intellectual curiosity is vital. Additionally education needs to be present for cultivation of good character in human and reaching the maximum potential.
Besides, for Aristotle, friendship is considered as one of the important virtue in development of eudaimonia or happiness. The highest kind of friendship is based on virtue. This friendship is based on the person wishing well and best for their friends regardless of pleasure. This is called as a complete sort of friendship between people who are very much alike in virtue. This kind of friendship is tough to obtain and is long-lasting (Pursuit of Happiness 2013). Maintaining this kind of friendship takes work and care to form a complete virtuous friendship. Moreover, Aristotle values this kind of friendship highly and supersedes honor and justice. Friendship is valued by people as no one in the society can live without friend’s .People that value honor are more likely to seek personal gain through any relationships. Thus a virtuous friendship is the one that is based of enjoyment as it combines virtue and pleasure together and this fulfills intellectual and emotional nature.
In conclusion, happiness is the end and the sole purpose of existence in humans. It is considered as the highest good of all the activities which a human desires. It is not a source of pleasure but exercise of virtue. Happiness cannot be achieved till the end of one’s life, thus is set as a goal and not as a temporary state. One of the great works of Aristotle was on the influential works present in the Nicomachean Ethics, where he aptly presents the theory of happiness and now is still very much relevant over 2300 years (Ackrill, J 1981). Happiness is the end of the human nature. The good is desired for its own sake and involves teleological system of actions. It is an activity which is desirable in itself. Moreover, Eudaemonia is the activity of the soul achieved through arête of virtues, excellence and is characterized by doing well in the affairs of the world. Happiness is an activity involving intellectual and moral arête. Aristotle characterizes the activity as supreme good for a rational human being in accordance with virtue. Moreover it is a perfection of the nature of human since man is a rational human being who depends on exercising of one’s reasoning. Happiness depends on acquisition of moral character where the virtues such as justice, generosity, courage, citizenship and friendship are displayed in one’s life (Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics 2004). Moral virtue is the disposition to behave ethically and in the right manner .It are the men between the extremes of excess and deficiency. Achieving and obtaining these virtues involve striking mean or balance between the deficiency and excess. Intellectual contemplation is also necessary for the ultimate realization of the rational capacities of human.
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