In Book I, Aristotle mentions that happiness is an end goal and “one day, or a short time, does not make a man blessed and happy”. In agreement with this statement, happiness is something that takes time and each person should strive for it every day. Road blocks are bound to occur and bad days will happen. By keeping the end goal in mind, it makes it easier to avoid getting stuck in a rut. Within Book I, Aristotle also questions whether or…
Aristotle believed that we as humans have natural obligations that provide happiness. Happiness consists of pleasure and the capacity to develop reasoning.…
Sources A., Ross, W., & Brown, L. (2009). The Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford world's classics). Oxford: Oxford University Press. In this book, Aristotle, the philosopher, writes…
The virtue of ethics as define by Aristotle in its simplistic form is to discover the nature of human happiness. Happiness is the highest good and the end at which all our activities ultimately aim. The difficulty is that people don’t agree on what makes for a happy or good life, so the purpose of the ethics is to find an answer to this question. The answer is imprecise because practical circumstances vary a great deal when considering a person’s life as a whole.…
Aristotle accepts the individual choices and experiences of people and was more concerned with virtue ethics. He doesn't have an idea of free will. Along with Socrates, Aristotle believes that someone may know what the best outcome is and still do wrong, but draws the line between happiness and moral virtue. This includes depression and unhappiness. The world has moral meaning. He explains that moral virtue does not mean the end of life. His theory is that happiness is the end of life, which comes together with reason. Virtue is a state of personality that has to do with someone’s choice.…
Aristotle’s ethics focuses on virtues of character and good habits. His big term he uses is eudemonia, which means happiness.…
Aristotle one of a great thinkers left a great philosophical logic that is still being learned today. Born in Stagira, Greece Aristotle started as a student of Plato to become a tutor of Alexander the Great. In Nicomachean Ethics, book written by Aristotle’s, he explains virtues and how happiness is the means by which human beings have moral virtues. The debate whether virtue or vice should determine happiness is what Aristotle simplifies for us. Happiness should be determined by the activities human beings, virtuous or not, do in order to be happy within themselves.…
References: Aristotle (1915-2008). “Nicomachean Ethics.” Exploring philosophy: an introductory anthology (4th ed., pp. 410-415). New York: Oxford University Press.…
In Aristotle’s Book II of Nicomachean Ethics, he explains that virtue of character is the mean to the ultimate end, which is happiness. Aristotle states that, without a goal or ultimate end (happiness), life does not have a purpose. Therefore every action in a person’s life has to be made with true virtue of character in mind in order to achieve…
Aristotle was Plato’s prize pupil who discussed the types of moments where moral correctness may be applied to certain events, nature of virtues involved in the sound morality of humans as well as the ways to achieve happiness in one’s life. The overall question that Aristotle tends to ask himself and try to answer is the question that pertains to human character and personality, what do we as humans need to do, to be considered as a good person. Aristotle explained that every activity has a final cause and purpose at which it aims to achieve and he argued that since there is not an infinite amount of goods, there has to be one type of good that is the highest and most important which humans strive towards. He continues to describe this ultimate good and decided that it could be called happiness, however the only puzzling question left is, what is happiness? Due to its existence in so many forms it is tough to describe happiness as one true thing…
Aristotle's ethical theory is known as virtue ethics because at the centre of his description of the good, which are the virtues which shape human character and human behaviour. However, this good human life is one lived in harmony and cooperation with other people, since Aristotle saw people as not only rational beings but as also social beings too.…
In Books 9-11 of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle works to segregate the explanations of happiness as a result of fortune and happiness as a result of virtuous actions. However, after he reaches an ideologically pure explanation, he quickly pivots backwards, settling on an explanation that incorporates elements of both theories. This allows posthumous events to affect one’s state of happiness, impacts his definition of happiness, and exemplifies the text’s ideological inclusion.…
Aristotle believes that people's actions are governed through their desire to achieve happiness. According to Aristotle, the purpose of human life is by happiness through living your life entirely by your actions as an individual on…
References: Aristotle (2004). The Nicomachean ethics (J. A. K. Thomson, Trans.). London (etc.): Penguin Books.…
Aristotle’s account of a good life is defined in Book I of the Nicomachean Ethics and revolves around the function of human beings. This function Aristotle determines to be unique to human beings, which is the act of reasoning well . But reasoning well is not just a life of contemplation according to Aristotle; it is a life of habitual good decisions made though one’s choices and actions. Happiness is achieved through the combination of contemplation and actions. Therefore, living a good life requires pursing activity in accordance to reason and that our actions should be governed by rational thought. Those virtuous actions should be in accordance with correct behaviors, which are directed by both moral and character virtues. This concept of a virtuous life is rooted in the ideal that all voluntary human actions aim at some good. Some of these actions may be a means to a higher good such as obtaining a moderate…