Compare and Contrast Plato and Aristotle on Well-Being
Compare and contrast Plato and Aristotle on well-being.
Well-Being: The state of being healthy happy or prosperous.
It seems obvious to suggest that the goal we all are aiming at is total happiness; total success and fulfillment. In the Nichomachean ethics, Aristotles' main aim is to provide a description of what this so-called happiness actually is, and how we can go about our day to day lives in order to achieve the best life that we possibly can. He begins book one with what philosophers call a 'Teleological conception of life'. That is, everything we do is aiming at some end: 'every art and every investigation, and similarly every action and pursuit, is considered to aim at some good. Hence the good has been rightly defined as 'that at which all things aim' ' (NE 1.1) What Aristotle means here by 'good', is not the generic term that we use to describe something enjoyable or favourable, but more of an ultimate, supreme good; a satisfactory and wholesome end. An end at which we all are aiming.
In book 1, Aristotle calls the ultimate end (or telos) eudaimonia, which is commonly translated as happiness, but also as success or fulfillment. (1097a28-34). He proposes that we ought not to regard happiness as a property, but as a goal for the sake of which we act. So Aristotles' examination of happiness is a practical one, practical because he not only wants us to befall upon a theory of what happiness actually is, but his approach is guided by the thought that such an end is nothing less than the object of all rational action. Aristotle proposes that the first step we can take towards acquiring a successful life, is to realise what good action consists in, and to use this to guide us in our pursuits. He goes on to say that we should use the criteria of this supreme good to 'evaluate (other) goods, such as pleasure, wealth, honour, moral virtue, and philosophical contemplation' (Lear, G.R Happy Lives and the Human Good,1.1)- we are to take these to be the keys to
Well-Being: The state of being healthy happy or prosperous.
It seems obvious to suggest that the goal we all are aiming at is total happiness; total success and fulfillment. In the Nichomachean ethics, Aristotles' main aim is to provide a description of what this so-called happiness actually is, and how we can go about our day to day lives in order to achieve the best life that we possibly can. He begins book one with what philosophers call a 'Teleological conception of life'. That is, everything we do is aiming at some end: 'every art and every investigation, and similarly every action and pursuit, is considered to aim at some good. Hence the good has been rightly defined as 'that at which all things aim' ' (NE 1.1) What Aristotle means here by 'good', is not the generic term that we use to describe something enjoyable or favourable, but more of an ultimate, supreme good; a satisfactory and wholesome end. An end at which we all are aiming.
In book 1, Aristotle calls the ultimate end (or telos) eudaimonia, which is commonly translated as happiness, but also as success or fulfillment. (1097a28-34). He proposes that we ought not to regard happiness as a property, but as a goal for the sake of which we act. So Aristotles' examination of happiness is a practical one, practical because he not only wants us to befall upon a theory of what happiness actually is, but his approach is guided by the thought that such an end is nothing less than the object of all rational action. Aristotle proposes that the first step we can take towards acquiring a successful life, is to realise what good action consists in, and to use this to guide us in our pursuits. He goes on to say that we should use the criteria of this supreme good to 'evaluate (other) goods, such as pleasure, wealth, honour, moral virtue, and philosophical contemplation' (Lear, G.R Happy Lives and the Human Good,1.1)- we are to take these to be the keys to