Aristotle has a skewed view of pleasure. He combines pleasure with virtue and sees the pursuit of virtue as being the best route to happiness. He does this in order to show people that they should act above their natural inclinations to viciousness and so forth. Behaving virtuously promotes better life satisfaction, etc.
¶ … perceive as Aristotle's best work known work on ethics, Nichomachean Ethics, sheds light on what Aristotle believed was happiness. "…happiness would seem to need this sort of prosperity added also; that is why some people identify happiness with good fortune, while others
eacting from one extreme to the other> identify it with virtue" (Aristotle, Irwin, & Fine, p. 360). His perception of what is happiness implies:
that it itself is desired, that is not based on anything else's sake, that it satisfies all desire and is not mixed with any evil, incorruptible,
It is stable.
However, happiness as defined by these aspects are not all of what may comprise the complete meaning of happiness at least in Aristotle's eyes. He believed the life of gratification: comfort, pleasure, the life of money-making, the life of action, and the philosophical life, such as study or contemplation helped to comprise a more complete version of happiness or pleasantness.
Aristotle is known to dismiss the life of pleasure as it is known in society. (I.e. A life that the wants and desires of the body such as sex, food, etc.) But, in his Nicomachean Ethics, his various claims of happiness and therefore pleasure, are different and should be selected based on virtue. He believed the virtuous man finds moderation pleasurable, in accordance with proper reason. Aristotle defined a virtuous individual as deriving pleasure from virtuous acts. The pursuit of virtue to him is a form of pleasure. In a way, Aristotle advocates a life of pleasure, just in moderation and with select activities.
"For pleasure is shared with animals, and implied by every object of choice, since what is divine and what is expedient appear pleasant as well" (Aristotle, Irwin, & Fine, p. 369). In the Nicomachean Ethics the work offers Aristotle's resurgence of analysis into happiness where his discourse of it began earlier. In prior works he defined a view of happiness as being "inclusive" that involved varied activities in which philosophical thought is just one of many activities. "Wisdom," he writes in the book 1 chapter 13, "wisdom is also virtue" (Aristotle, Irwin, & Fine, p. 365). In this later thoughts on the same matter of both happiness and wisdom, he speaks in favor of an exclusive view.
Happiness or the pursuit of pleasure, however it may be seen, involves analysis of what people find themselves desiring. Happiness after all, includes the attainment of some or set of external goods (i.e. Wealth, love, friends, and fame) that will have a person "live well." A second, goods of the body (i.e. Life, good looks, good health, athleticism, etc.) enables a person to enjoy their success or life. A third, goods of the soul, (i.e. virtue, knowledge, education, friendship, etc.) allows for spiritual happiness.
Aristotle viewed specific goods such as life and health as being basic preconditions for happiness where something like wealth could be add-ons or embellishments that enable one to have an easier life at being virtuous. Aristotle believed virtue or the practice of virtue, was the core essential element of happiness. In his eyes, the virtuous person was the only type of person that can attain happiness. He saw the virtuous person as never feeling misery, in the deepest sense, amidst the possibility of misfortune and ruin.
Happiness for Aristotle, unites an element where people have great control over (virtue) with elements where people have lesser control over (health, friends, etc.). That is why some people think Aristotle is dismissive of pleasure. They think Aristotle view of pleasure is similar to their own when reality it is different. It is united with the pursuit of pleasure. To be a virtuous person to him is to be a happy person.
Fortune and luck also has a role to play in happiness as mentioned in Book 3 of EN. Fortune to Aristotle is merely a consequence of erroneous actions. Such that he compares the tragedies of Oedipus, Orestes, and so forth, to their mistakes in life or their "character flaws." Virtue prevents or at least limits these mistakes, thus eliminating or at least reducing misfortune. However, those who suffer misfortune and are virtuous, are pitiful. "For pity is felt for someone suffering ill fortune who does not deserve it…" (Aristotle, Irwin, & Fine, p. 553).
In order to further analyse virtue, one must understand the assumptions Aristotle makes of the character of the human soul. He divides it into (a) a governing part (reason),
(b) a part that should be governed or is governed by reason (passions or appetite),
(c) And a part normally not responsive to reason (unconscious actions such as heartbeat, digestion, etc.)
Thus, virtues are categorized as having reason as their subject whilst consist of passions governed by reason as their topic. The contrast among virtues mirror the contrast among the different passions and among the different purposes of reason.
Virtues as Aristotle puts it, are good habits that help the soul achieve happiness and nobility. Virtuous actions communicate acceptable reason. They are gained through consistent practice. Virtuous acts then make the person virtuous. When a person becomes virtuous, they start to derive pleasure from it. In fact finding virtuous actions burdensome to Aristotle means they're not doing it right.
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