?Explain Why Aristotle Believes That Morality Leads To Happiness? Essay, Research Paper
What does happiness consist of? Could it be the same for all men/women, or do different men/women seek different things in the name of happiness? Can happiness be achieved on earth, or only thereafter? There seems to be no question that men/women want happiness.
Aristotle takes the word ?happiness? and gives it the technical significance of ultimate good, ?The chief good,? he writes, ?is evidently something final?Now we call that which is in itself worthy of pursuit more final than that which is worthy of pursuit for the sake of something else, and that which is never desirable for the sake of something else more final than the things that are desirable both in themselves and for the sake of that other thing. Therefore, we call final without qualification that which is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else. Such a thing happiness, above all else, is held to be; for this we choose always for itself and never for the sake of something else.?
Happiness can also be expressed in terms of its completeness or sufficiency. It would be true that happiness is desired for its own sake and everything else for the sake of happiness, if the happy man/woman wanted something more. The most obvious mark of the happy man/woman according to Aristotle is that he/she wants for nothing. The happy life leaves nothing to be desired. So happiness is not a particular good itself, but the sum of good things. ?If happiness were to be counted as one good among others,? Aristotle says, ?it would clearly be made more desirable by the addition of even the least of goods.? But then there would be something left for the happy man/woman to desire, and happiness would not be ?something final and self-sufficient and the end of action.?