Aristotle
Happiness, Function, Morality, and Virtue Aristotle argues that happiness, function and morality are closely connected and that virtue is dependent upon all of them. To fully comprehend Aristotle’s theory, we must first examine each of these qualities and then determine how they are related to one another. The deliberation process will show that all of these qualities can be strongly connected, but not exclusively. Happiness, function, morality and virtue can exist independent of one another. The first deliberation is to define happiness. Happiness is the highest of all practical goods identified with “ living well of doing well”(100). According to Aristotle, Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and pursuit, is thought to aim at some good; and for this reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at which all things aim. But a certain difference is found among ends (99). An example of this reflection would be the final product created by an architect. This individual completed building a structure from start to finish and has reached the end of the project. The architect is pleased by the results of what she created. The architect achieved the desired outcome and is therefore happy. A difference between . . .
In other words, happiness is being intermediate. The ability to reason is not the only purpose of human existence. Even Aristotle says that the “chief good” is the “final end”(100). Aristotle has some good points when he speaks about the concepts of happiness, but his thoughts also imply that happiness, function, morality and virtue are all tied together as if they are inseparable. The only down fall to his hypothesis is that this world in which we live is not a perfect one. If virtue is the state of character, than the state of character defined by Aristotle is, “what makes a man good and which makes him do his own work well” (111). Morality is the distinction between what is right and wrong and this distinction is dependent on the individual and the situation. If the chief good is happiness, than the function of human beings and reasoning must also be happiness. Gravity by nature pulls everything to the earth’s surface at a fixed rate. Finally, if they choose to take “less” then they are deficient (112). The outcome of the choices humans make is what creates desire. For example, if one is excessive in the characteristic of courage than others might view them as being afraid of nothing. This proves that any sort of habit cannot change nature. The way Aristotle ties these separate elements together is remarkable and in a perfect world his theory would probably be true.
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