Happiness Aristotle’s and the Stoics’ View

Happiness Happiness is all around the world, it is a very genuine and important thing, and everyone wants to be happy. Being happy is what makes life worth living, and it makes life a lot better in every way possible. What makes people happy though? Are bodily and external goods necessary to happiness? I would say no because by which they can make you happy, they are not necessary for human happiness. It’s not what things you buy, the pain, the suffering, or enjoyment your body might get. Human happiness comes from somewhere else within the human. Comparing and contrasting Aristotle’s and the Stoics’ view of human happiness will help give a better clear and logical understanding on what really happiness is and why I believe that bodily and external goods are not necessary for happiness. “If someone lives a virtuous and morally worthy life, then no matter how advantages come to him (excluding those that are his fault), he will lack nothing needed for true happiness” (Barlaam 25). That was the way the Stoics believed happiness really is. The Stoic’s belief in happiness is quite complicated and in order to understand what they mean, one must thoroughly examine their views. We have human goods and then we have other human “goods”. If these “goods” are added, they will not make people any happier. Happiness will only come from human goods like only those that are truly praiseworthy, and if the human is praised, then that will make for a happy life. The Stoics believed that true human happiness is a complete combination of all distinctive human things. The Stoics say that if you have a skill, it does not matter toward happiness. Having a skill will not make you happy. “For though a man may be a good carpenter, or workman, or scribe, he is not called a good man by reason of that art, or praised simply as a wise or prudent or intelligent man” (Barlaam 6-7). That’s the main reason why the Stoics say that skills are not needed for happiness.
The Stoics also believe