Aristotle's Conception of happiness
Joe Schmoe
11/10/13
Intro to Ethics
Aristotle’s Conception of Happiness In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the dialogue focuses mostly on how to live the good life, and what happiness is as well as what is commonly perceived as happiness. Book 1.4 introduces the question, what is the human good? Aristotle goes to say that most people have a different conception to what happiness is to what a wise man would have of it. In book 1.5, Aristotle gives what he says to be the popular conceptions of happiness which are, pleasure, honor, and wealth, and he also puts up arguments against these accounts. I am going to reconstruct each of these conceptions, breakdown Aristotle’s arguments against them, and give my reasoned and critical assessment of his arguments. Starting with pleasure, Aristotle gives the assumption that most men pursue a life of pleasure. If happiness resides in pleasure, then to live the good life one must obtain as much pleasure as possible. Aristotle refers to the people who have this conception to be that of the, “vulgar type”, to equate happiness with pleasure and that they live a life of “beasts”. These unrefined characters are what Aristotle says to be, “quite slavish in their tastes”, sort of like an addiction to pleasuring their senses. Examples of this can range from sex addiction or addiction to food, overeating in other words, that corresponds with being slavish to their desires. But this assumption is maybe bias, in that Aristotle believes that most men are vulgar, when that might not actually be the case. There probably wasn’t a specific case study to guarantee his claim that most men are vulgar people. The next conception is honor, which Aristotle connects to the political life. The idea is that a refined and sophisticated person pursues a political life to earn honor, and equate this honor to happiness. This conception that the common people believe in then is saying that happiness is given to us by others. His argument against
11/10/13
Intro to Ethics
Aristotle’s Conception of Happiness In Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the dialogue focuses mostly on how to live the good life, and what happiness is as well as what is commonly perceived as happiness. Book 1.4 introduces the question, what is the human good? Aristotle goes to say that most people have a different conception to what happiness is to what a wise man would have of it. In book 1.5, Aristotle gives what he says to be the popular conceptions of happiness which are, pleasure, honor, and wealth, and he also puts up arguments against these accounts. I am going to reconstruct each of these conceptions, breakdown Aristotle’s arguments against them, and give my reasoned and critical assessment of his arguments. Starting with pleasure, Aristotle gives the assumption that most men pursue a life of pleasure. If happiness resides in pleasure, then to live the good life one must obtain as much pleasure as possible. Aristotle refers to the people who have this conception to be that of the, “vulgar type”, to equate happiness with pleasure and that they live a life of “beasts”. These unrefined characters are what Aristotle says to be, “quite slavish in their tastes”, sort of like an addiction to pleasuring their senses. Examples of this can range from sex addiction or addiction to food, overeating in other words, that corresponds with being slavish to their desires. But this assumption is maybe bias, in that Aristotle believes that most men are vulgar, when that might not actually be the case. There probably wasn’t a specific case study to guarantee his claim that most men are vulgar people. The next conception is honor, which Aristotle connects to the political life. The idea is that a refined and sophisticated person pursues a political life to earn honor, and equate this honor to happiness. This conception that the common people believe in then is saying that happiness is given to us by others. His argument against
References: "Aristotle." 2013. The Biography Channel website. Nov 10 2013, 09:17 http://www.biography.com/people/aristotle-9188415.