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Nicomachean Ethics By Aristotle Analysis

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In now days, many people do not know what does the word “happiness” means or feels, some people may think it is when they are in a good mood or when something happens and they feel very good about it. Aristotle said: "Every man has a right to be happy because happiness lies in the leisure spirit.” To get there people must have pass through a bad time or situation because happiness is where there is virtue and true effort, because life is not a game. Being honest, I had never seen happiness from a point of view as clear as Aristotle did. Happiness is a subject that has preoccupied man since its inception, and in the same way, to philosophy. Happiness is a close to society and therefore very important issue. Aristotle in his “Nicomachean Ethics” presents the idea that the end of man is happiness and how people should lead a "good life". Happiness consists in the exercise of the activity of man. Such activity is none other than the soul and to be perfect must be accompanied by the virtues. Towards the end of the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle stated the activity of the man and what gave him greatest happiness was the contemplative life.
Aristotle defines happiness as a supreme good, because only by being happy, the fullness of life is reached, but to reach that fullness people should give the best of each, to fully exploit all the potential, but in a …show more content…

All acts are linked with the ability to reason, but sometimes there are people who are driven by feelings and passions and act instinctively to achieve something more. Aristotle said that a happy man is one who has everything he needs, to develop their full potential, and the development of the potential is that it manages to achieve full happiness, this means that a happy man is one who does not want anything more of what he has already and focuses more on the rational part than on the

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Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics begins by exploring ‘the good’. Book I argues that, unlike other goods, “happiness appears to be something complete and self-sufficient, and is, therefore, the end of actions” (10:1097b20-21). In other words, happiness is the ultimate good. But how does one achieve happiness? Aristotle formulates this in the context of work, since for all things, from artists to horses, “the good and the doing it well seem to be in the work” (10:1097b27-28).

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Not many achieve happiness in their lifetime. Either they do not live long enough to witness it or they are not prepared for what their happiness is. Happiness is very subjective. Each person’s version of happiness is different. This version of happiness is universal.

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Happiness, or eudaimonia, according to Aristotle, is defined simply as human flourishing. The act of flourishing

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Aristotle states you achieve happiness in many sorts of ways such as carpenters building a home, or an architect designing a building. Happiness relates to virtue because in order to be happy one must live a virtuous life by living in accordance to the given mean such as studying for a test although there is a party that night. Within Book II he explains how there are certain conditions which must be met in order for actions to be virtuous such as actions done knowingly, chosen for their own sake, they arise from a steady state of the soul, and they arise from a steady state of the character itself. For example one can not only make a courageous act thinking “s/he” will benefit from the action, they must do it because it will make them feel happy.

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Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is a compilation of books, or scrolls, designed to be an all-encompassing work on ethical goals, and how they may be achieved. In the work, Aristotle lays out a position uncommon in ethics, which doesn’t directly take into account the moral standing or concern of others, but places emphasis on one’s own happiness, a position akin to egoism. This position is defended by Aristotle in his stating that happiness is the primary goal in life in the same way that victory is the end goal in strategy and healthfulness is the goal of practicing medicine. But what is happiness, and how might one achieve it?

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Aristotle, on the other hand, had a much more positive outlook on the applicability of his political theory. In many ways, his ideal ideology would look much like Plato’s, although with a more guided and empirical approach. Aristotle, like Plato, argued that the state was not only necessary, but essential to the happiness of its people, because the state was the only means by which the city could achieve happiness. According to Aristotle, “the best good is apparently something complete” and likewise, that “happiness more than anything else seems complete without qualification” (Nicomachean Ethics, 205) and “everyone aims at living well and at happiness” (Politics, 315). Furthermore, he argued that “happiness is an activity of the soul expressing

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He says that these friendships of the good are the greatest external good and maintains that they are vital to a happy life. Aristotle concludes that the key to living a true life of happiness, fulfillment, and well-being or eudaimonia, lies in a life surrounded by friends and cannot be found within a life of solitude. While Book IX.9 focuses on the defense of

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Aristotle defines the good of man as being able to achieve happiness,

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As previously stated, Aristotle offers no specific formula to achieve this happiness. He does however assert that the highest “good” one can obtain in life is happiness. He makes this clear by explaining that happiness is never pursued for the sake of something else, everything else in life is pursued for the sake of happiness, “So happiness appears to be something complete and self-sufficient, it being an end to our actions” (Aristotle pg. 12 lines 20-21). This happiness he describes is deeper than just the pleasures of wealth, sex, self-indulgence, or anything else in life that provides temporary pleasure.

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According to Aristotle, an individual can achieve happiness only by realizing all the works and activities in accordance with reason throughout his lifetime. He claimed that happiness consists in cultivating and exercising virtue and it is the ultimate purpose of human existence, as stated in his work Nicomachean Ethics “He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life”. However, such Aristotelian concept of happiness inevitably contradicts the understanding of history as development which maintains that fulfilling the work of human exceeds the limits of an individual and thus can only be achieved in the course of history. Three

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It is critical to recognize Mill’s argument that a degree of contentment can exist in periods of less happiness. However, Aristotle’s view of perceiving wellbeing or goodness as ultimate is more pronounced. Worth emphasizing, Aristotle deeply explores his arguments basing them on functions of a rational man and virtues out of habits. Today, a virtuous citizen is one whose actions are inward, in response to conscience and moral obligations as a member of society. Such a person, not waivered with intensities of pleasures, honor, and wealth but seeks to have a satisfactory level of happiness with friends, co-workers, and family among other

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In order to do this, we need to 'know thyself ' and become as learned as we can, knowing the good for all, while also being humble. We are all naturally good people, so we must promote the good in the world. According to Aristotle, however, happiness, his goal for all humans is not that easy to obtain. He claims that "happiness is a certain sort of activity of the soul in accord with virtue (Aristotle, p.12). On the Aristotelian model of how to obtain happiness, it deals a great deal with the issue of particulars.

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