Analysis on Aristotle
Our modern concept of happiness appears to be one synonymous with contentment. A happy person is one who leads a life in which they are content with their actions. However, the Aristotelian conception of happiness, or of eudaemonia, is a compound, made of matter and spirit, of sense and intelligence, of animal conditioning and rational, all of this crowned and guided by wisdom and contemplation. Happiness, according to Aristotle is contingent on living a good life. He is a firm believer that good life can only be met if morally right actions are performed until they become habitual. After these actions become a habit, moral virtue can be achieved. I intend to discuss how Aristotle, in his Nicomachean Ethics, analyzes happiness and excellence in relation to moral virtue and the doctrine of mean. Aristotle regards happiness as a final end - the final cause of action for a human being. He used the word eudaemonia in a sense which refers to the quality of a whole human life - what makes it good as a whole despite the fact a person is not having a blast or a good time every minute of it. A human life may involve many joy, pleasures, successes and it may also involve heartbreaks, sorrows, grieves, troubles and that could still
Whereas, moral excellence is one accomplished through them. Aristotle claims that the virtue is the mean between the two kinds of extreme; that is excessiveness and deficiency. Aristotle thinks that the good is the end of human action in general and should therefore have practical ramifications for the way a person should act. But both ends cannot be found from the mean. A morally excellent man finds pleasure in doing good acts, and actually does them. Aristotle is careful to separate intellectual excellence from moral excellence, and place the latter on a higher pedestal. The virtues which Aristotle enumerates are guiding principles for which one should aim when determining one's conduct. 70) Intellectual excellence is that which is learned or experienced through schooling or craft. First, the opposite ends varies according to situations, cultures, individuals and context. In each specific situation, the virtuous action is a mean between two extremes. Cronk in Philosophy East and West: Classical and Modern Sources (Hartcourt & Brace, 1999) pp. Aristotle did not seek knowledge of the form of goodness - he thought that form was present in the good person. Intellectual excellence can only allow a man to think about doing good actions or analyze the world, it does not entail him actually committing to a moral path of action. The function cannot be one which plants and animals also perform because it must be particular to human beings. Aristotle's theory of virtue as a mean for happiness and excellence can bedisputed and it's validity be questioned.
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