Aristotle's views on ethics and philosophy

Aristotle's Views On Happiness And Virtue

Happiness as the Virtuous Rational Activity

The happiness that Aristotle spoke of is not the same as the happiness that most of us would think of today. The ancient Greeks had a very different perspective on what constitutes happiness. Aristotle spoke about achieving eudemonia, which is roughly translated into happiness. Eudemonia is not an emotional state; it is more about being all that you can, fulfilling your potential. The belief was that living in a way that enables one to reach their full potential allows one to bloom or flourish and to display the best version of self possible. True happiness can therefore be attained only through the cultivation of the virtues that make a human life complete.

Implications of Aristotle's Conception of Happiness

Aristotle believed that virtues are central to a life well lived. He regarded ethical virtues, justice, courage, temperance, and so forth, as complex rational and emotional social skills that were vital to the art of living and achieving eudemonia. In order to live well a proper appreciation of the way in which such goods as friendship, pleasure, virtue, honor and wealth fit together as a whole is necessary. To apply that general understanding to particular cases, one must acquire, through proper upbringing and habits, the ability to see, on each occasion, which course of action is best supported by reasons. Therefore practical wisdom, as he conceived it, cannot be acquired solely by learning general rules. One must also acquire, through practice, those deliberative, emotional, and social skills that enable one to put general understanding of well-being into practice in ways that are suitable to each occasion.

For Aristotle, moral virtue is the only practical road to effective action. What the person of good character loves with right desire and thinks of as an end with right reason must first be perceived as beautiful. Consequently, the virtuous person sees truly and judges rightly, since beautiful things appear as they truly are only to a person of good character. It is only in the middle ground between habits of acting and principles of action that the soul can allow right desire and right reason to make their appearance, as the direct and natural response of a free human being to the sight of the beautiful.

Virtue as the Golden Mean