Aristotles Conception of Happiness Essay Example for Free

Aristotles Conception of Happiness EssayAccording to Aristotle, only a virtuous somebody preserve be truly happy. He doesnt say we should aim at bliss, only sooner that we do aim at happiness. Everyone wants to be happy and provoke happiness in his or her manners, but people do non know how to go about this. If one lives in accordance with enamor virtues then he or she will achieve this happiness. However, what is happiness? Most people imply happiness as a physical pleasure or honor, so they do things they presuppose is good. They think things desire money, pleasure, and honor will bring them closer to happiness, but these things do not equal happiness.People think that theses things will bring them happiness, but that is because they do not know what happiness genuinely is. These things are a mean towards obtaining happiness. Happiness is the fulfilling of human function, or the activity of the soul according to virtue. Happiness comes from the Greek rule book euda imonia, which is fulfillment and success to the highest form of happiness. It is the central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. Aristotle says that every action seeks some good and every action seeks an end. Everyone is seeking the highest end, or the complete end, which is lastly happiness.If someone wants to achieve happiness, they must first be a virtues person, or a good person. A virtue is achieved by maintaining the mean, or balance between two excesses. But it is not enough to think about doing the right thing or even intending to do it one must actually have to do it. In order to understand what is good, we must know that there are three types of life (1) Pleasure, according to the ignorant and vulgar (2) Honor, according to the people who think happiness is doing well or animation well and (3) Study.The men who choose pleasure put pursuing a life of enjoyment in a higher place all else. And the men who choose honor wanted to be praised for the things they have do ne, so they are really only doing these acts for selfish reasons. And finally the men who choose study do it for their own sake of macrocosm to gain knowledge for themselves. Aristotle explains these three types of lives because we can now dismiss them as not being considered good. These views controvert the idea of good and thus support the idea of happiness being the universal good. Yet, happiness is not instantaneous.It must be achieved over time. Aristotle argues Are we, then, to call no man happy as extensive as he lives, but to wait for end, as Solon said? And supposing we have to allow this, do we mean that he actually is happy after he is dead? (Aristotle 23) In other words, can a man be called happy during his life? Or do we have to wait until he has passed to determine whether or not he had lived a happy life? Aristotle believes that happiness consists of achieving though the caterpillar track of a lifetime in all goods, such as health, wealth, knowledge, friends, e tc.These goods are also cognize as external goods and one needs these externals goods to be happy. Aristotle states, For a man is not very presumable to be happy if he is very ugly in person, or of low birth, or alone in the humanness, or childless, and perhaps still less if he has worthless children or friends, or has mixed-up goods ones that he had. (Aristotle 21) Aristotles conception of happiness supports the view of only the virtuous person can be said to be truly happy. Happiness is believed to be the most desirable thing in the world (Aristotle 14).