People Are Just as Happy as They Make Up Their Minds to Be.
“People are just as happy as they make up their minds to be.” (F) What is happiness and how is it achieved? Simple questions, with different complex answers, none of which can be proved to be right or wrong. Happiness is an individual state of being of each person, acquired by one’s perception in that special moment in time. It simply depends on the individual and how they try to obtain it. Thousands of people try different paths in order to successfully achieve happiness; some of them finding it, some of them never reaching the goal. There are thousands of different answers and meanings for happiness. In this paper, I will argue that the most necessary virtue an individual needs to be have to be happy, is the virtue of mind.
Aristotle, one of the most important Greek philosophers in history, defined happiness as the activity of the mind in accordance with virtue. He did not think of happiness as just a state of being; he thought of happiness to be the highest form of good. Everything people do has a specific purpose in life; it aims at something, at a final good. Happiness is an end sufficient in itself, is the end at which all our actions aim. In order to reach this perfect state, he thought the individual should possess; external, mind and bodily virtues and living and acting in accordance to them. By doing so, achieving total happiness. Virtue is what aids proper functioning, since when possessed makes the possessor good. Virtue is a matter of having an apt attitude towards pleasure and pain; therefore it lies in a mean between two extremes. Aristotle implied the mean or balance to be between two vices, the excess which is the one that exceeds and defect the one that falls short, of what is right in our desires and actions. Whereas virtue, finds and chooses what is intermediate. The idea of the virtue then, is for the desires to set the situation and for the individual to be able to choose the intermediate and act like a virtuous person. External
Aristotle, one of the most important Greek philosophers in history, defined happiness as the activity of the mind in accordance with virtue. He did not think of happiness as just a state of being; he thought of happiness to be the highest form of good. Everything people do has a specific purpose in life; it aims at something, at a final good. Happiness is an end sufficient in itself, is the end at which all our actions aim. In order to reach this perfect state, he thought the individual should possess; external, mind and bodily virtues and living and acting in accordance to them. By doing so, achieving total happiness. Virtue is what aids proper functioning, since when possessed makes the possessor good. Virtue is a matter of having an apt attitude towards pleasure and pain; therefore it lies in a mean between two extremes. Aristotle implied the mean or balance to be between two vices, the excess which is the one that exceeds and defect the one that falls short, of what is right in our desires and actions. Whereas virtue, finds and chooses what is intermediate. The idea of the virtue then, is for the desires to set the situation and for the individual to be able to choose the intermediate and act like a virtuous person. External
Cited: Little, Lyneka. Miseries of the Rich and Famous: The Concerns of the Super Rich: Wealth Does Not Bring Happiness-ABC. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Calibre Wealth Management, Boston College. 21 March. 2011. Web October 14. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/ http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080716235657AAyU5iY http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/34560/Aristotle/254722/Happiness#ref923103 http://abcnews.go.com/Business/concerns-super-rich-wealth-bring-happiness/story?id=13167578#.UHsgpMVYuSo -------------------------------------------- [ 1 ]. Abraham Lincoln