Similarities Between Aristotle And John Stuart Mill

Aristotle’s ethics and John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism differ greatly when explaining where an individual’s happiness is. Mill states that pleasure and relief/freedom from pain are what compose an individual’s happiness. On the contrary, Aristotle believes that happiness comes from virtue. Happiness is a widely discussed topic and both John Stuart Mill and Aristotle spent a lot of time contemplating it. They both agreed on one aspect of happiness. They both came to the final conclusion that in order to attain genuine happiness, men should be engaging in activities that are specific to humans.
Aristotle argues that and individual practicing their virtues is what ultimately leads to their happiness. Aristotle states that “virtue is a trained faculty or habit.” (Aristotle) This implies that the habit of choosing the thing that makes a person good leads to happiness. …show more content…
Aristotle believes that contemplation is the highest action a human can perform and helps an individual reach their maximum potential. To Aristotle, contemplation is defined as refining and discovering virtues. According to Aristotle, reaching this “maximum potential” helps humans reach happiness. In today’s modern world, many think that happiness is something plain like money, success, or fame. Many people deeply believe that these materialistic things are the root of all happiness; however I side with Aristotle on his point. Aristotle says it’s what we do in our life, not we gain from life like money or success, which helps us find happiness. He says that “the good is the final end, and happiness is this.” (Aristotle) He argues that everything we do is “for the sake of the end”. When Aristotle says this, he means that we all do everything for our final end, which is our happiness. Aristotle also believes that happiness cannot happen instantly. In modern times, we want to feel full happiness immediately, so we do things like