According to Aristotle, happiness is pursued for its own sake, not just for the sake of something else. Aristotle once said that the human purpose in life whether is wealth, sanctity, or power always leads to happiness. Also, he said honor and wealth are for the sake of other things. I agree, for example, when you are in an occupation you enjoy and you're making good money, you have happiness and wealth. So your wealth is feeding of your happiness, which in essence means that your wealth is for the sake of happiness and not is for its own sake. Many find happiness in adventure and others in a library, such differences are what set each one of us apart and when we finally discover uniqueness we also find our purpose. I believe happiness is achieved when one's heart is what lead them to do what they are focusing one then and only then is when you achieve true happiness.
Aristotle defines happiness as a set of virtues that humans obtain through experiences throughout their lifetime. Virtue is a state that decides and consist in a mean. He also calls it the "golden mean" between the two extremes. For example, generosity is the mean between extravagance and stinginess, and Wittiness is the mean between buffoonery and boorishness. The mean is relative to the person making the decision. I agree with this because it is basically saying that I decide if I want to do whatever I am doing. To take it further, Aristotle states that your decision as to be defined by reason. The decision that you choose to make has to be of a rational account of why that was the mean between excess and deficiency. He also goes on to say if you can't decide what the mean is, you have to basically put yourself in the shoes of an intelligent person, a person with practical wisdom, a virtuous person, and make a decision.
This is a good post that covers what we did in class. I definitely agree that money helps a person by "feeding" to their happiness. Everyone finds their happiness in different things, like you suggested in your paragraph.
ReplyDeleteI do feel like we are always looking for happiness. Everyday throughout our lives. We cannot avoid it, but I don't believe anyone can reach complete and full happiness. Since we are always in search for it and always finding new ways to make us happy, happiness can only be temporary. So as humans, our purpose in life is the pursuit of happiness. It is something we strive for everyday, but never can obtain fully.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the whole mean concept because it is possible to do things without coming up short, or doing too much, yet not all people that are wise, and virtuous make the right decisions. At the end of the day we are all humans, and humans make mistakes.
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