Aristotle On Happiness

What is the proper goal of life? Are all pleasures equally good or are there better or worst pleasure? Does 'happiness' is our main goal, and how can we reach it? All these questions human tried to answer for ages and centuries. From the Ancient Greek to the modern philosophy, there were different ideas, hypothesis, and contradictions. People always had an understanding that their nature is different from animal and plant nature. We are not moving according in internal principle of order. We have to choose the goals and habits that will allow us to fully actualize ourselves – to live a good life. First, who started to talk about human desires to live a good life, and contradictions with pleasures we want, was Plato. In Gorgias he stated

Reversely to Plato, he considers happiness to be the reason why things are called good. Happiness as a final goal is not a product but an activity. If could not be diminished to the things that constitute it. Rather, we can define happiness by the full employment of human potential. It is important to note that for Aristotle, humans do have the goal or purpose. He develops the function argument, during which he contemplates on what is characteristic of human, which would distinguish him from animals and plants. Aristotle comes up that it is the reason. Thus, the good life would be the fulfillment of human's potential, which essential involves the use of reason. Happiness is determined not by how we feel but rather by how we use our rationality. It is the result of specifically human activity. Following this, we must say that we reason about what we desire and ask not just how do we get it but also whether we should avoid it or not. What should make a person happy is the coincidence of pleasure and good. In other words, happiness is the state where the appearance of the good matches the reality of the good. So, how do we achieve this

Therefore, virtues are the habits, which allow one to function well. Saying habits, he emphasizes the fact that it is something to be trained. In agreement with Plato about man's capacity to do good or bad, Aristotle defends a plastic nature of man and stresses that it ultimately depends on what we do. Virtue is the habitual action that allows man to function well and actualize his potential. Being a habit, virtue requires moral training. This kind of training, according to Aristotle, takes place already in the early childhood. At that time, we are taught to associate pleasure and pain with actions. The common principle for Aristotle is, what he calls - “correct reason” considers what is appropriate to the occasion. Things tend to be destroyed by defect or excess and both produced and preserved by the right proportion. Therefore, virtues man would choose to pursue the meaning between extremes. It is by repetitive or habitual abstaining from pleasure one becomes temperate. Similarly, by being accustomed to despise fearful things, one becomes