Socrates Pursuit Of Happiness
How we Achieve Happiness
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April 14, 2014
In the history of happiness, Socrates had a different place in the history of the West since he was the pioneering philosopher to reason that happiness occurred through human effort. Socrates existed in Greece around 460 BC in a place where happiness existed as a preserve of the people favored by the god only. The perception of hubris existed where one could only attain happiness through harsh punishment in this context; the Greek philosopher diverted this view of obtaining happiness from the body and focused on the soul. Aristotle was also one of the greatest Greek philosophers that sought to address the issue of happiness. …show more content…
According to Socrates, the euthydemus sought to describe happiness in two main viewpoints. He described happiness as the goal that all humans seek to aspire since it was a good that was unconditional. The second view was that happiness did not occur solely by having external things but rather on the utilization of those things (Brickhouse, Thomas, and Nicholas, 1987). This argument drives the point that money is just but a good when in the hands of an individual, the way that individual utilizes that money determines hi/her happiness. Ethydemus dialogue argued that human beings achieved happiness depending on the focus and direction they gave material things and not the accumulation of those things. In this view, Socrates brings the aspect of happiness through teachable human effort. In contrast, Aristotle argues that human happiness occurs through perfecting human nature. Thus according to Aristotle, man achieves happiness through perfection and intellectual contemplation of his reason and not through some form of teaching as argued by Socrates (Brickhouse et al., …show more content…
In this view, Socrates argues that Eros is the key helper of humankind in that he cured all evil and brought the greatest happiness in the human race. The main idea that Socrates argued here is that in order to seek happiness, human beings were first to seek divinity. Eros was thus acting as an intermediary between divinity and the way human beings could achieve happiness. Socrates argued that when human beings achieved divinity they could also achieve happiness. He has integrated the idea of beauty and happiness and argued that happiness happened if only human beings saw the real beauty. In the third dialogue of the republic, Socrates argues that a people who are just find happiness than those who are unjust. It was an imperative that if all men sought happiness, then the only to acquire it was to live a just life. In deriving his argument, Socrates also interlinked happiness with pleasure and morality (Vlastos,
Name of Student:
Course Title:
Instructor’s Name:
April 14, 2014
In the history of happiness, Socrates had a different place in the history of the West since he was the pioneering philosopher to reason that happiness occurred through human effort. Socrates existed in Greece around 460 BC in a place where happiness existed as a preserve of the people favored by the god only. The perception of hubris existed where one could only attain happiness through harsh punishment in this context; the Greek philosopher diverted this view of obtaining happiness from the body and focused on the soul. Aristotle was also one of the greatest Greek philosophers that sought to address the issue of happiness. …show more content…
According to Socrates, the euthydemus sought to describe happiness in two main viewpoints. He described happiness as the goal that all humans seek to aspire since it was a good that was unconditional. The second view was that happiness did not occur solely by having external things but rather on the utilization of those things (Brickhouse, Thomas, and Nicholas, 1987). This argument drives the point that money is just but a good when in the hands of an individual, the way that individual utilizes that money determines hi/her happiness. Ethydemus dialogue argued that human beings achieved happiness depending on the focus and direction they gave material things and not the accumulation of those things. In this view, Socrates brings the aspect of happiness through teachable human effort. In contrast, Aristotle argues that human happiness occurs through perfecting human nature. Thus according to Aristotle, man achieves happiness through perfection and intellectual contemplation of his reason and not through some form of teaching as argued by Socrates (Brickhouse et al., …show more content…
In this view, Socrates argues that Eros is the key helper of humankind in that he cured all evil and brought the greatest happiness in the human race. The main idea that Socrates argued here is that in order to seek happiness, human beings were first to seek divinity. Eros was thus acting as an intermediary between divinity and the way human beings could achieve happiness. Socrates argued that when human beings achieved divinity they could also achieve happiness. He has integrated the idea of beauty and happiness and argued that happiness happened if only human beings saw the real beauty. In the third dialogue of the republic, Socrates argues that a people who are just find happiness than those who are unjust. It was an imperative that if all men sought happiness, then the only to acquire it was to live a just life. In deriving his argument, Socrates also interlinked happiness with pleasure and morality (Vlastos,