Difference Between Aristotle And Hobbes

Happiness isn’t something that can be completely defined. It’s interpreted in distinct ways, some believe it to be a value, while others see it as an emotional state, but everyone sees it as something they want to achieve in life. Hobbes believes that human happiness is nothing more than, “continual success in obtaining the things you want when you want them” (Hobbes 27). Hobbes argues against many philosophers, saying that our happiness is rooted in materialism. Some people may agree with this, thinking if they had more money or certain things than all or most of their problems would be solved and they could finally be happy. For some this could actually be possible, if Hobbes’ philosophy is entirely correct. A thing doesn’t always
Aristotle doesn’t think that happiness is something that comes and goes continuously, he sees happiness as a goal in ones life or the ultimate value of ones life so far. “Verbally there is a very general agreement; for both the general run of men and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness, and identify living well and doing well with being happy; but with regard to what happiness is they differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise” (Nicomachean Ethics, 4). Aristotle finds that only the wise know what true happiness is and it has to do with doing well for oneself, which can be interpreted differently from person to person. There is no exact thing Aristotle is relating to doing well, it’s more like one personally sets a goal or decides whether their life is good which translates into happiness. Maybe what Aristotle is saying isn’t that one will be continually happy with the position they are in in their life, but that one will be content with how their life is going and accept it, as in happiness depends on what a person does to make themselves happy. When a person usually thinks of anyone being happy they probably think of someone smiling or laughing while doing some kind of activity, but who is to say that is what happiness is? Happiness could just be getting out of a tough time in one’s life and being in a
Aristotle is indirectly talking about Hobbes in the first line, in that happiness is as plain and simple as a thing. The thing Hobbes is talking about usually relates to whether or not they could afford the thing that can make them happy, which has to do with their wealth. “The life of money-making is one undertaken under compulsion, and wealth is evidently not the good we are seeking; for it is merely useful and for the sake of something else” (Nicomachean Ethics, 5). Aristotle is further debunking Hobbes’, in that a thing we are seeking is not useful for us and therefore neither is the wealth we think we need to obtain that