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…
Though Aristotle does not explicitly speak of meaning, he surely considered the reality of impartial values and meaning. While his primary concern was on the happiness gained by accounting for these values, he does not say that the happy life means the meaningful. However, we can infer that he thought that the good life and the meaningful life are equals. Therefore, Aristotle’s plan in order to live a good life is understandable, and is a guide to a meaningful life.…
The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner and Quincy Troupe entails the life story of Christopher Gardner. Like other books that movies are made from, The Pursuit of Happyness movie was very different than the book. In the movie, Gardner starts out in his late twenties; he lives with his wife, Linda, and his son Chris Gardner Jr., who was five-years-old at the beginning of the movie. The book starts out very differently; Gardner is just three-years-old and living in a foster home (Gardner and Troupe 15-16). By the end of the book, Gardner Jr. is barely four-years-old. The major difference between the book and the movie is that Gardner experiences physical, mental, and sexual abuse.…
People who win the lottery are actually anything but happy. Winning the lottery often causes people to fall into debt, people often risk losing their houses because of the bank often takes away their homes. Not only that, but their relationships with family and friends is also likely to fall apart. People who win the lottery often become selfish and end up spending all their money on themselves, when their family and friends attempt to ask them for money things often turn real…
According to Aristotle every activity aims at some good, which is happiness, and that we should do so by aiming for excellence through rational activities. Happiness is being able to do well in life and live well; however, he argues that many believe happiness has to do with your wealth, pleasure, or honor. People who are wealthy are not aiming for the good they are simply seeking it for another purpose. For example, when you have a lot of money and you want the new iPhone. Well now that you purchased the phone you have to purchase a new case and a new charger and then the next best iPhone becomes available for purchase and repeat. There is no end to the cycle of wealth because people are always seeking other means, which happiness is the…
1. According to the text a full functioning completely happy person will be mentally, physically, spiritually, financially, professionally, creatively, and socially healthy & well rounded individual. Happiness involves being really alive and not just existing. Aristotle believes that a person should work hard doing what they love, they also shouldn’t devote their lives to acquiring riches since riches don’t provide happiness. One should also reject fame and public success to become happy as self sufficiency is believed to provide happiness. Happiness is a process starting from infancy. A happy life is a life where spiritual, physical and social needs are met under reason and moderation. I think Aristotle recipe of happiness involves a person making a conscience decision to do the right thing in all aspects of their life. I think the happiness he refers to is obtained by living a healthy life, being in tune with our psyche, having a career that we enjoy, having friends and family to love, and having enough riches to support ourselves without gloating about them.…
Many people try to define and consider different definitions of what happiness is, and I think that Plato and Aristotle offer interesting views of happiness and what it means for one to live a good life. Both philosophers agree that happiness is an important factor in one’s life and essentially the essence of how to live a good life. Plato offers many theories and definitions of justice leading to happiness, while Aristotle argues that happiness is the main goal that all humans aim for in their entire life. Plato offers a philosophical view of a happy life for an individual by explaining a just state and what it would entail and also the theory of the forms that one must understand to achieve happiness. After learning about both philosophers, I have come to the conclusion that I agree with Aristotle’s view of happiness more because he gives us a broad outline of what a good life is. Although Plato was Aristotle’s mentor, Aristotle offers a view of happiness that is more plausible and relevant than Plato’s because it places a large emphasis on the idea of the function of a human being. Therefore, in this paper, I will argue that I agree with Aristotle’s view of happiness over Plato’s because of the way Aristotle describes how humans can achieve the greatest good in life: happiness.…
As the discussion on defining happiness thickens in the Republic, Socrates starts comparing the makings of a good city to a good soul as a way to successfully segue into explaining what the true meaning of happiness is. He explains that a well-functioning city is equivalent to happiness. If a city is stable and flourishing, then the city as a whole would be happy and the citizens would also be happy, especially if they are free from any internal or external conflicts. Though some can argue that there is no correlation between the well-being of a city and its citizens, one cannot simply ignore that a poorly functioning city directly influences the state of living of its citizens negatively; how can the citizens be happy if their city isn’t functioning…
Almost everybody had already stopped, at least once, to think how perfect it would be to win the lottery, and how life would get better. But, what seems to end up as a fairytale, many time becomes a horrible nightmare. Rather than improving their lives, a lottery win can lead newly rich people to feelings of guilt, paranoia, and boredom.…
In fact, according to Co-author Dr. Danilo Garcia who is a researcher at the Sahlgrenska Academy's Centre for Ethics, Law and Mental Health, said, “It's relationships that are most important, not material things, and this is in line with other findings in happiness research” (Dailymail, 2013, para. 4) One of the main reasons of happiness depends on the experiences we had in our lives and on our relationship with friends and families. In fact, I have conducted an online survey where I asked some questions about this matter and one of these questions was (Is money the main factor of happiness?) The result of that question was interesting. Actually, 53 out of 76 which are 69.74 percent answered no; and some of them stated that there many other factors that contribute in making people happier other than money but the most important one is having a good relationship with your friends and family and the experiences that you live with them (Azzuni, 2016). Furthermore, according to Tom Stafford, “One study famously found that people who had big wins on the lottery ended up no happier than those who had bought tickets but didn't win. It seems that as long as you can afford to avoid the basic miseries of life, having loads of spare cash doesn't make you very much happier than having very little” (BBC, 2013,para 2) This study proves the point that you can get happiness by…
Our society is money oriented because it is necessary for every day life. We believe that money will bring happiness but the reality is it often does not. Money can bring unneeded aggravation that can cause stress not joy. People who win the lottery often do not step forward right away to claim the money. They usually wait a few days to make a plan and think over what they will do with their fortune. They know as soon as others find out about their luck, they will have many people expecting something from them. The winners begin to realize that although the money is a blessing, it can become a headache. If they do not use it wisely, they may end up losing all of their winnings.…
People have defined happiness as some kind of good of a human being. In Nicomachean Ethics: Book I, Aristotle defines happiness as the activity of living well, which in the Greek word is called eudaimonia. He tends to think that happiness is how we balance and moderate our lives to seek the highest pleasures, which he calls maintaining the mean. In the following excerpt from Book I, Aristotle talks about how happiness presumably consists in attaining some good or set of goods. “Now goods have been divided into three classes, and some are described as external, others as relating to soul or to body; we call those that relate to soul most properly and truly goods, and psychical actions and activities we class as relating to soul” (Book I pg. 7). He is saying that since happiness consists in attaining some good that there are three different types of goods that you can attain; an external goods, which consists of wealth or honor, goods of the body, which is health or physical strength, and lastly goods of the soul, which consists of knowledge, education, and friendship. Aristotle goes on to say how only certain goods are necessary for happiness. “It is correct also in that we identify the end with certain actions and activities; for thus it falls among goods of the soul and not among external goods. Another belief which harmonizes with our account is that the happy man lives well and does well; for we have practically defined happiness as a sort of good life and good action” (Book I pg. 7). He is saying that only certain goods such as health are the necessary preconditions for happiness and that other goods such as wealth is just something extra that help fill out a good life for a virtuous person, but the possession of virtue or excellence is the element of happiness. Aristotle also adds that humans seek different goods that make them happy compared to animals because humans have a rational capacity that when exercised perfects our natures as human beings.…
Winning the lottery seems like one of the best things to ever happen to anybody. Imagine going from being poor to being a millionaire overnight! That seems like a dream come true, but if you do some research you will soon realize that the lottery actually ruined most people's lives. Why? Because quickly lottery winners realized that the millions of dollars they had received overnight weren't solving all of their problems. They were still unhappy, and becoming even more unhappy. The material items they were buying weren't living up to there commercialized standards. So, they bought more, and more, and more until they didn't have any money left. These people weren't using their money correctly, but carelessly spending it on themselves to find…
Nevertheless, dreams are thought to impossible to truly accomplish, therefore it’s not worth it to dream. “Winning the Lottery: Does it Guarantee Happiness” “... But an often-referenced study from 1978, comparing 22 major lottery winners with people who did not win, found no difference in happiness levels the two groups”(Pg. 2). This survey doesn’t give any details as to who the lottery winners were and where their thoughts were when they won.…
Could a resurrected Aristotle find happiness in today's America? Or would he qualify as deeply unhappy, like the one-third of Americans that identify with this statistic? For me, I believe Aristotle would fall victim to dystychís — a word meaning unhappiness in Greek. I say this because I believe Aristotle’s ethics is too limited and outdated to aid a modern weak-willed society. In Nicomachean, Aristotle writes “For While the good of an individual is a desirable thing, what is good for a people or for cities is a nobler [and] a more godlike thing.” (Aristotle 4) This shows how old-fashioned the Aristotelian viewpoint really is, after all, society had adapted many times since 322 BC. This makes sense when you take into consideration that Aristotle…