Searching for Meaning

”(Aristotle 86) Aristotle believed that there are three levels of the human soul, at the bottom lies the nutritive element: compassion, health and wellbeing; the second level holds the sensitive element: emotions, beauty and pleasure; while we share the bottom two levels with all life, the top level is exclusively human, the rational element: reason, wisdom and morality. “He who fears the course of nature is a child. Those highest ends, which we pursue for their own sake, must be the supreme good. ”(Aristotle 86) “Man then finds his highest and most lasting happiness in the active life of his soul in accordance with virtue. The highest ends are ends in themselves, while subordinate ends may only be means to higher ends. Aristotle writes that “happiness for each creature is found in the best possible performance of the function for which he is particularly adapted,”(Aristotle 86) he believed that each person was born to perform a specific trade and that true happiness was found through action and success within that trade.

“Every human activity aims at some end that we consider good.

Aristotle also discusses the importance of virtue in our daily lives. ”(Aurelius 21) Aurelius believed that as long as you followed your heart and acted in accordance with the natural flow of the present you would achieve happiness and peace of mind. ”(Aristotle 88) For Aristotle the highest end was to live a successful life in accordance with virtue and sustained by action, in this way the eudaimonia achieved at the end of one’s life would continue on after death. He believed that lasting happiness could not be achieved without virtue, which according to Aristotle is “…either intellectual, the excellence of the reasoning powers, that is, providence and wisdom; or moral, the control of emotions and desires in obedience to reason, that is liberality and temperance. “This you must always bear in mind: what is the nature of the whole, and what is my nature, and how is it related to that, and what kind of part is it of what kind of whole…”(Aurelius 21) Contrary to Aristotle’s belief that the quality of happiness in one’s life depended on their level of success and ability to use reason and wisdom elements of the third level of the human soul, a level believed to only be mastered by the top social classes, Aurelius was one of the first philosophers to believe in equality for all humans regardless of social class or gender, he believed that all mankind was born with a “divine spark” and would always be in harmony with the overall plan of nature.

Like Aristotle, Aurelius believed that death was the fulfillment of one’s life.

Another contrary belief Aurelius had to Aristotle was that of personal meditation opposed to learning from academics and philosophers, “Through not observing the thoughts of another man is seldom unhappy, but he who does not observe the movements of his own mind must of necessity be unhappy.