They spend a great deal of time and money trying to improve their health through exercise, dieting and medicine and comparatively little time and effort trying to become more virtuous people. Socrates demonstrates that living good defines living a happy life. Happiness is a virtuous activity that fulfills our proper purpose. "And you may easily see that it is the god that has given me to your city; for it is not human, the way in which I have neglected all my own interest and allowed my private affairs to be neglected for so many years, while occupying myself unceasingly in your interest, going to each of you privately like a father or an elder brother, trying to persuade him to care for human excellence." By human excellence Socrates is relating to the good of the soul. Socrates would rather live a good life then to not live at…
There are traits and characteristics which are understood to be virtuous (definition: Excellence in morals; A good habit; a character trait or quality valued as being good.) i.e., caring, confident and courteous are examples. Virtue…
Virtue, according to Aristotle, is equivalent to excellence (Hutchinson, 41). A man has virtue as a guitarist, for instance, if he plays the guitar well, since playing the guitar is the distinctive activity of a guitarist. Similarly, the virtuous person is someone who performs the distinctive activity of being human well. Rationality is our distinctive activity – that is, the activity…
Virtue, rather than being a teachable piece of knowledge, seems to be an innate understanding. Every person in the world, save perhaps psychopaths and sociopaths, naturally has a strong moral compass. An example that proves this idea is the innocence of children. I have never witnessed a child perform an action with solely malicious intent. Children always have some outside motivation for any hateful actions they perform, so they never do it only to hurt someone. At this point you might think that, yes, children do not do anything with only malicious purposes, but the fact remains that they continue to perform such actions. This is true, but honestly, how have children learned to do such hateful things? No child would consider cursing at anyone if they were angry, but since they observe others performing these actions, the children begin to develop the idea in their minds that doing so must relieve their suffering. It seems, then, that humans learn harmful…
Happiness is determined by virtue, and goods of fortune essentially facilitate virtue. Aristotle first asserts that “activities in conformity with virue constitute happiness, and the opposite activities constitute its opposite”. [NE 1100b] It means that once a person continuously acts virtuously, he will be happy no matter he possesses or lacks fortune, which provides none of the necessity of happiness. However, Aristotle also points out that “…a happy man also needs the goods of the body, external goods, and the goods of fortune, in order not to be obstructed by their absence.” [NE 1153B]…
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.…
Plato’s writings on happiness are seen as a representation of Socrate’s view since Plato was his student, and presents his writings on happiness in three dialogues, namely Euthydemus, The Symposium and The Republic. As to necessary conditions for happiness in the Euthydemus, he argues first that happiness is what everybody desires; it is the end or goal of all our activities, unconditional good; secondly, he says that happiness does not depend on external things but rather how those things are used. For instance, one cannot claim that money brings happiness, but rather how money is used is what determines happiness. An ignorant person will waste away the money and end up worse than before, but a wise person will use the money well for his own good, and the same applies to external things, such as looks or even…
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.…
What makes a person’s life good? Is it virtue? Pleasure? Power? In Plato’s Gorgias, though didn’t end up with a mutual agreement, Socrates and Callacles fight each other’s views and quarrel to come to a conclusion of the meaning of a good life.…
Wealth and positions of power, under Socrates’ definition of “virtue as a whole” (77a), are only considered to be components of the nature of virtue if they are accomplished through just means. “It seems then that the acquisition must be accompanied by justice or moderation or piety or some other part of virtue; if it is not, it will not be virtue, even though it provides good things.” (78d-e) this reveals that the intention and process of acquiring good things is important to the nature of virtue as a whole. Without just process wealth nor positions of honor are not attributes of virtue because regardless of their significance as good or beautiful, they cannot be truly appreciated as virtuous without morally righteous intentions. “Then to…
unite the citizens in harmony…” (The Republic of Plato, pg. 234). Each person reaches their own happiness depending on their choices; happiness is the ultimate ‘good’ and good is individual justice in behaving good. The paradox of…
Socrates begins this dialogue by hesitating to explain his thoughts about what the good is considered to be. After much persistent pleading by Glaucon, Socrates agrees to discuss the topic, however on a smaller level. He promises to discuss the offspring of the good as he calls it and save the father of the good for another time. Glaucon accepts this proposal and anxiously waits for Socrates to begin. Socrates begins his dialogue with a statement which he has spoken about before, “that many beautiful things are visible, but not intelligible, while the forms are intelligible, but not visible.” With this statement, Socrates moves on to ask Glaucon with which part of ourselves do we see visible things. Glaucon responds by saying with our sight. Socrates then proposes that in…
He speaks of virtue as being a sort of mean in life, where as excess and defect are a form of failure. “Virtue is a kind of mean, since, as we have seen, it aims at what is intermediate.” (N.E. II. 6) Right there as he compares everything to virtue which he says that it is a form of success. After this however he speaks about how we are all exposed to evil things and maybe inclined to do them but that isn’t virtuous.…
The goal of this paper is to discern and construct the world views of Socrates through the various readings, lectures and videos that we have seen in class. Some of these sources include: Socrates by G. Rudebusch; excerpts from The Last Days of Socrates by Plato; and The Allegory of a Cave. Of the nine world views covered in class, I will delve into my interpretation of four of them as seen through the various sources that we have been exposed to in class. These four world views will include Death, Condition, Solution and Morality. Finally, I will use my understanding of the world *views assessment to critique Socrates’ view of morality.…
Aristotle believes that there is only one goal, one ultimate end for every individual—that is eudaimonia, translated as happiness, not as a feeling but happiness as the highest human good or a life full of activity. He claims that a person should live a way of life distinct from the lives of animals, where they only live for the sake of living or pleasure.1 As human beings, people should use their power of speech to communicate and make rational decisions within a polity, striving to live their lives up to their full potential and to their full capacity for a happy life.2 The life of politics, the via activa, is thus the key to the chief good or the best life for humans; however, the life of action must be of certain type of quality, in accordance with reason, since different actions may lead to the good or the bad life. In other words, a person’s actions must be in line with arête, with virtue or excellence.3…