Question

Explain how Aristotle understands human happiness (Eudaimonia)

How does moral virtue correlate to human happiness, according to Aristotle?

Answer 1

"Happiness depends on ourselves." Aristotle enshrines happiness as a central purpose of human life, and a goal in itself, more than anyone else. Consequently, he devotes more room to the question of happiness than any thinker before the modern age. He lives during the same time as Mencius but draws some similar conclusions on the other side of the planet. This is, happiness depends on virtue cultivation while its virtues are much more individualistic than the Confucians' basically social virtues. However, as we will see, Aristotle was convinced that a truly happy life required a wide range of conditions, including physical and mental well-being.

The Greek word which is commonly translated as "happiness" is eudaimonia, and like most ancient language translations, this can be misleading. The main problem is that happiness is often conceived as a subjective state of mind, as when you say you are happy when you enjoy a cool beer on a hot day, or when you are "having fun" with your friends. However, for Aristotle, happiness is a final end or goal which embraces the entirety of one's life. It is not something, like pleasurable sensations, that can be gained or lost in a few hours. It is more like the intrinsic worth of your life as it has lived up to this moment, evaluating how well you have fulfilled your full human potential

Or that's why you can't really make any pronouncements about whether you've lived a good life until it's over, just as we wouldn't say a half-time football game was a "perfect game" (indeed we know a lot of these games that turn out to be blowouts or dudes). We can not say that children are happy for the same reason as we can say that an acorn is a tree because the potential for a flourishing human life has not yet been realized. As Aristotle says, "since a spring is not produced by one swallow or one fine day, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man blessed and happy.

According to Aristotle, happiness is the best, noblest, and most enjoyable thing on earth. That means, for me, that happiness does something that makes a person feel comfortable and content. Happiness is connected with virtue by means of virtue being something he / she likes to do like vices; it makes him / her happy. Finally, happiness is linked to enjoyment because joy certainly makes a person happy and this is what a person really needs.