Nicomachean Ethics Term Paper

Happiness in Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics"

According to the definition of human happiness in Aristotle's "Nicomachean Ethics" the goal of human life ought to be the seeking of happiness, when pursuing all things. This may be contrasted with merely living for the sake of momentary bodily, social, or even personally gratifying pleasure. True, pleasure is often mistaken for happiness. But unlike pleasure, happiness is a moral obligation, shared by all peoples, rather than something that is dependant upon others and the esteem or judgment of others or even other sources. Rather, to seek happiness is a uniform moral bond all human beings labor under, for they should attain a complete state of the highest and fullest happiness as the ultimate purpose of their lives, rather than merely seeking out pleasure and momentary and societal approbation in a variety of forms.

"Verbally there is very general agreement; [that happiness is the goal of human life] for both the general run of men and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness, and identify living well and doing well with being happy; but with regard to what happiness is they differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise. For the former think it is some plain and obvious thing, like pleasure, wealth, or honor." In other words, human beings "differ," about happiness not simply in the sense that different things provide people with happiness, but because most people lack a full and sustaining sense of what happiness truly is, and mistake the gratifications they receive from others for happiness. (I: 4)

According to Aristotle as well, the "consideration of the prominent types of life shows that people of superior refinement and of active," that is of a public, "disposition identify happiness with honor; for this is, roughly speaking, the end of the political life. But it seems too superficial," rather the word virtue, he states, is better.

Virtue, is both a private as well as a public value, states Aristotle, taking up Plato's contention that the….....