Happiness According to Aristotle

Paper Summary:

At the very beginning of Book I, Chapter XIII, Aristotle states that happiness is a certain activity of soul in conformity with perfect virtue. This paper explains that what Aristotle means is that true happiness can only be defined as the state that is achieved in a perfectly virtuous person; it cannot be defined any other way, not by pleasure, or bestowed honor, or wealth, or any other illusion. This paper explores the reasoning behind this belief.

From the Paper:

""The generality of men," Aristotle states, "identify the Good [or Happiness] with pleasure, and accordingly are content with the Life of Enjoyment" (Ethics 1095b). He explains later (particularly in Book X) what is incomplete about the "Life of Enjoyment," but the gist of his argument is quite clear, almost obvious, to us today: Happiness, we feel, is something Human, something that other animals will never achieve because it is a Human thing, someway bound to contemplation or self-recognition; as Aristotle states, "The whole of the life of the gods is blessed, and that of man is so in so far as it contains some likeness to the divine activity; but none of the other animals possess happiness, because they are entirely incapable of contemplation" (Ethics 1178b). Since pleasure is clearly not a solely human thing, it cannot by itself account for happiness."

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