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Conception Of Happiness In Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics

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What happiness?

In Nichomachean Ethics, written by Aristotle, one of the main subjects of discussion is happiness. Even if the book was written over two thousand years ago, the subject of happiness is still relevant and interesting to study. In the first sections of the book, happiness is discussed in terms of being the highest good; in the last chapter happiness is conceived as being attainable in a full life of studying. If, looking at it superficially, Aristotle’s arguments might seem to come into contradiction; I believe that they complete each other because they overlap on the ideas of education and virtue, amongst other things.

Aristotle’s first conception of happiness is as part of a complete life. He uses many arguments to prove …show more content…

They each discuss two faces of a same idea. In the first part of the book, he explains what happiness is and how it can be reached by being a virtuous person, in acts and in mind. But Book X comes and fills in a gap. What happens if a person has no way to be virtuous, for example, if he or she lives alone and has no human contact with society or other individuals, or if he or she is incapacitated and unable to perform virtuous acts? This is where the idea of getting to happiness through a life of studying comes into action. In that way, the two conceptions are complementary because one of them adds elements to strengthen the argument of the other. In a certain way, the author is responding to a question that has not explicitly been asked. Book X comes later after the attention given to the idea of happiness through a life of study. It is believable that the author saw a weakness in his argument and corrected it later on. Book X also comes back on the notion of virtues and how they fit in the perspective of happiness in a life of study. Aristotle seems to believe that understanding is a supreme virtue since it is the one he attributes to divinities who cannot do virtuous actions like being generous (1178b §7 9-24). It seems that the author not only seeks to make is argument more complete and convincing but that he is also providing a specific example to the solution he is giving. On another plan, the two conceptions of happiness both discuss the idea that someone’s social conditions, parents, work and education have play a role in someone’s happiness. To become a virtuous person, according to the first conception, being taught morality is necessary, it the individuals teaching that are not considered moral by society, it is difficult for the one learning to become a moral person who will accomplish virtuous acts. For example, two criminals have a child,

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