According
to Aristotle, we learned that he believes in the idea that everything has a
purpose. This is known as teleology of nature. To find what this certain
purpose is would be the goal of ethics, which requires that we uncover the
human's purpose.
People
believe happiness is the purpose of life. The reason causing the happiness is
what’s different between people. Some people think it is money that causes
happiness or pleasure or honor. The reason why these do not result in happiness
is because they are not for own sake but instead for something else. Money is
used for other things, pleasure is experienced by not only humans but also
animals, and honor is based on other people’s opinion. To find the purpose, it must be something only
human’s experience.
In
life, we all have unique traits that separate us individually. The question is,
what separates us all as human beings from everything else? The answer to this
is reason, or the ability to distinguish us from other things. The law of non-contradiction
allows for contradictory things to be the same thing such as a circular square.
With
all this in mind, it leads to the focus of virtue. Virtue is equal to
happiness. What is virtue? It is to perform well. People are not born with
virtues, but instead learn them which can lead to the knowledge of justice.
This is where Aristotle is different from Plato. Plato believes that to know
justice a person must go beyond the idea, study it, and know all about it. As
for Aristotle, a person must experience the idea, live by it, make it a habit,
and become excellent at it.
For a
person to be happy and virtuous, they must find an activity and make it a
habit in which they enjoy. They must perform this over and over until excellence is achieved. To be
courageous, a person does not study it but instead does it. Over time, it will
just become natural to them. As for justice, a person must live by it in a
positive moral way so that they can progress and learn while experiencing it. By doing so, in the end the person will be content and happy with what they are doing.
Shelby, you brought up an interesting point when you said that Happiness is caused by different things for different people. These differences often cause disputes, fights, and sometimes lead to Unhappiness. Which in turn is counter-intuitive, seeing as the common goal is Happiness.
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