Every person in the world seeks attributes in his or her life that end in pleasure, goodness and happiness. It is then we come to find why humans seek these characteristics in their day to day lives. According to Aristotle, he distinguishes between these three attributes pleasure, goodness, and happiness and answers the overall question on why humans seek these characteristics in their lives. Within Aristotle’s text, he goes into depths on happiness, the virtues and the mean of reason, and lastly how to achieve the good life.
From a young age we began to understand the simple terms of our feelings, distinguishing them between the words happy, sad, or angry. These are words are the building blocks to how we identify ourselves to the world around …show more content…
Aristotle states even though the translation of eudemonia can be unclear to the English translation we stick to this idea of happiness to our well beings. Understanding what happiness truly is, is key to this idea of how it should be applied to our day to day lives. Dictionary.com gives a definition for the term happiness. Happiness is “characterized by or indicative of pleasure contentment or joy.” Even though this definition displays the characteristics of being happy it doesn’t give us what it truly means to be happy. Though we can say happiness comes from pleasure, Aristotle digs deeper to “distinguish being happy from just feeling happy.” (TGC, 185)
Being in a state of happiness is different than having the sensation of feeling happy. Many people blend these two ideas together but this is not so. According to Aristotle he states, “Many …show more content…
The next step is to define what a good moral virtue is and how to keep this idea in habitual practice. Aristotle terms virtue as “the organization of desire which enables man to live a truly happy life.” (Aristotle the desire to understand, 164) Though this definition of virtue gives us a glimpse of what this means Aristotle dives deeper to explain this concept. From the Nicomachean Ethics; Aristotle states a virtue must “render good the thing in itself of which it is the excellence and causes it to perform its function well.” (41) Every person in this world feels emotions, we are not blamed for this because this is an occurrence that happens voluntary in nature. But we as humans are responsible for how we act in accordance to our emotions. Hence, Aristotle shows us that virtues do not constitute to our emotions or capacities, rather they are dispositions or habits of practice. For example, every human being feels the emotion of anger, which is within our nature. But if we let our emotions control our actions it will show us we do not have a good moral virtue. Making the good life impossible to reach. Put another example in
From a young age we began to understand the simple terms of our feelings, distinguishing them between the words happy, sad, or angry. These are words are the building blocks to how we identify ourselves to the world around …show more content…
Aristotle states even though the translation of eudemonia can be unclear to the English translation we stick to this idea of happiness to our well beings. Understanding what happiness truly is, is key to this idea of how it should be applied to our day to day lives. Dictionary.com gives a definition for the term happiness. Happiness is “characterized by or indicative of pleasure contentment or joy.” Even though this definition displays the characteristics of being happy it doesn’t give us what it truly means to be happy. Though we can say happiness comes from pleasure, Aristotle digs deeper to “distinguish being happy from just feeling happy.” (TGC, 185)
Being in a state of happiness is different than having the sensation of feeling happy. Many people blend these two ideas together but this is not so. According to Aristotle he states, “Many …show more content…
The next step is to define what a good moral virtue is and how to keep this idea in habitual practice. Aristotle terms virtue as “the organization of desire which enables man to live a truly happy life.” (Aristotle the desire to understand, 164) Though this definition of virtue gives us a glimpse of what this means Aristotle dives deeper to explain this concept. From the Nicomachean Ethics; Aristotle states a virtue must “render good the thing in itself of which it is the excellence and causes it to perform its function well.” (41) Every person in this world feels emotions, we are not blamed for this because this is an occurrence that happens voluntary in nature. But we as humans are responsible for how we act in accordance to our emotions. Hence, Aristotle shows us that virtues do not constitute to our emotions or capacities, rather they are dispositions or habits of practice. For example, every human being feels the emotion of anger, which is within our nature. But if we let our emotions control our actions it will show us we do not have a good moral virtue. Making the good life impossible to reach. Put another example in