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Aristotle's Nicomachean Of Ethics

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I argue that the good life is achieving happiness, which is supported by Aristotle in “The Nicomachean of Ethics.” Aristotle believes that the greatest happiness of life is being great and living one’s purpose. With this also means striving to be the best person one can be by continuously contemplating and critiquing oneself. Conversely, from Machiavelli’s “The Prince” one can infer that the good life would be simply giving your life meaning by pursuing your goals at all costs because life is purposeless. The implications of this will be discussed later. Nonetheless, according to Aristotle’s conception of happiness being the highest good, the good life is truly about achieving and maintaining happiness by living one’s purpose, pursuing greatness, …show more content…

Someone can achieve greatness and live in their purpose and still be dissatisfied or be unhappy. He states, “But virtue or excellence also appears too incomplete to be what we want; for it seems that a man might have virtue and yet be asleep or be inactive all his life, and, moreover, might meet with the greatest disasters and misfortunes; and no one would maintain that such a man is happy…” To this, Aristotle’s solution is that to achieve happiness, or the good life, one has to understand one’s potential and intentionally work towards it. Therefore, the good life is also the examined life. When people examine themselves, they are able to assess their needs and nurture them. It is not enough to achieve one’s goal in life of becoming a great doctor if they also neglect their need of a social life or time for them self. Aristotle argues that a part of happiness is making sure all aspects of your needs are met, which includes your nutritive needs, your emotional needs, and those needs of the rational soul. To fully achieve the good life, or happiness, one must prioritize the right actions to be able to function healthy while living their purpose. He affirms, “the happy man lives well and does well; for we may say that happiness, according to us, is living well and doing well.” To live the good life one must organize their life in a way that would allow them to fulfill their purpose and maintain their happiness, whatever that takes. Happiness, and the good life, is about the journey towards greatness and not only the

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