Essay on Philosophy: Happiness as the Highest Good

In the book, The Aim of Man, Aristotle defines Good, Statecraft, Happiness, and the study of Ethics. He starts his work by claiming that there exists some ultimate good towards which all human actions ultimately aim. Notably, this good towards which all humans actions aim is happiness. Aristotle defines happiness as a certain activity of the soul by perfect virtue (Jacobus, 702). Further, he defines it as the most moral good that mans actions can attain. It is the one true end that all our behaviors and choices aim. Additionally, he describes happiness as the end that every man aspires to, the aim of man. Aristotles point is that, contrary to modern definitions, happiness is an activity. In particular, the contemporary notion of happiness is an emotional state. Nevertheless, the definition of happiness is still an ambiguous subject.

My interpretation of what Aristotle means by the term happiness is that it is the end and aim of all that we do. Moreover, we all strive to attain the very same goal as Aristotle points out, which is happiness. We do not know happiness until we can make the discernment. Also, in his definitions, he does not characterize the term with good fortunes but instead shows that happiness derives from the soul with perfect righteousness, something he describes as perfect virtue. In particular, he elaborates on how wealth is not the real source of happiness but as a means to an end, the good that we all are seeking; happiness.

Aristotle then defines the soul, its relationship to virtue and its relationship to the individuals quest for happiness (Jacobus, 699). He describes virtue (excellence) as an activity by which he means the exercise of the functions and capacities strange to man (Posner and Sustein, 90). To explain his notion of activity, Aristotle utilizes the Olympic Games as an analogy. He asserts that, in the Olympic Games, it is not the most beautiful and the strongest that are crowned, but those compete, for it is some of these that are victorious (Jacobus, 698). Therefore, those who act win, and rightly earn, the noble and good things in life. Aristotle deduces the scientific value propositions that are humanistic.

Regarding this, St Augustine asserts that virtue empowers a person to know God, and in doing so, makes that individual happy. According to him, morality provides a sanctification of the soul that enables it to see the divine. Also, he views virtue as a means to union with God, rather than an end in itself. Although Augustine shares with Aristotle the notion that virtue produces happiness, the way they conceive the relationship between morality and happiness is significantly different. The difference lays in the role virtue plays regarding human persons end. For Aristotle, virtue is the end of the rational person. In other words, it is the good individual that possesses the excellence necessary for an exceptional life, and, is, therefore, happy. On the other hand, for Augustine, virtue is only a means to the human persons end, which is the love of God. Although the high-value Augustine has for morality, he relegates it to be a mechanism through which a person attains his or her end, rather than the end in itself.

St Thomas Aquinas retains much of Aristotles structure and insight. Like Aristotle, he believed that man is more than a composite of body and soul that is elevated to a supernatural order, which participates, as far as a creature can, in the very true nature of God. He defines virtue as a good habit bearing on activity. Generic to the idea of virtue is the element of habit that stands in a particular relation to the soul, the remote source of all our activities (Decosimo, 13). However, not every practice is a virtue, but only one that improves and perfects a rational faculty as to incline it towards the right. Thomas argued of the necessity for theological virtues from a simple analysis of mans elevation to the supernatural order. He asserted that our happiness might be considered in two ways. First, happiness is commensurate with our human nature and thus achievable by the use of our native powers of mind and will. Second, as immeasurably higher, surpassing life, and secured only from God (Decosimo, 2).

Both Aquinas and Aristotle recognize that virtue is not its reward and possesses little meaning apart from an ultimate goal. A person is virtuous because his or her actions correspond to an objective norm, which for Aquinas was knowable by reason and faith and for Aristotle by reason only. Unlike Thomass theological virtues that can be measured by what the morality demands, to Aristotle, a moral virtue is a specific habit of the faculty of choice, consisting of "a mean fit to our nature and secured by reason in the way in which a prudent man would fix it."

According to Socrates, virtue, and happiness are bound up with the proper conduct of ones affairs, with guiding them by certain wisdom (Posner and Sustein, 91). In other words, virtue is knowledge. One of his recurrent themes is that the things that people believe to be good are not necessarily so; in fact, they can be beneficial or harmful. Socrates examined a series of things ordinarily taken to be good, for example, wealth, health, physical beauty, and qualities regarded as virtues, for instance, prudence and courage and showed that these things are not necessarily beneficial. Unless they are used correctly, by wisdom, they can be harmful. Therefore, Socrates describes happiness as the enjoyment of the benefit that results from the proper use of weak goods, which is made possible by the use of a particular kind of wisdom (Posner and Sustein, 91). Aristotle follows Socrates in taking the virtues to be crucial to a well-lived life.

Like Plato, Aristotle regards the ethical virtues such as justice, courage, and temperance as complex rational, emotional and social skills. Also, his function argument shows that our good lays in the dominance of reason and the detailed researches of the specific virtues reveal how each of them involves the right kind of ordering of the soul. In particular, Plato argues for the need for a harmonious soul. However, unlike Plato who asserts that justice is to be sought for its sake, Aristotle assumes that "if A is preferable for the sake of B, then B is better than A." Thus, the highest kind of right must be one that is desirable for the sake of anything else (Warne, 21).

Consequently, one may conclude that happiness is the highest good. However, to achieve it, we must make proper use of our weak good by the use of a particular kind of wisdom as described by Socrates. We can make appropriate use of our good by giving something up, to refrain from some pleasurable activities and to help others to be happy. Moreover, happiness is found in helping others. Aristotle says that we should put the good of others first.

Aristotle often emphasizes the importance of pleasure to human life. He holds that a happy life must include pleasure. He asserts that there are other pleasures besides those of the senses and that the best pleasures are those experienced by virtuous people with sufficient resources for a significant activity. According to Aristotle, his analysis of the nature of joy is not meant to appeal to every situation in which something appears pleasant to somebody, but only to activities that are pleasures (Posner and Sustein, 90). Therefore, every instance of pleasure must be good to some extent. Nevertheless, he insists that although some joys may be good, they are not worth selecting when they impede other activities that are far better. Therefore, Aristotle views that human happiness does not encompass in every kind of pleasure, but it does consist of one type of pleasure, the pleasure felt by a person who engages in theoretical acts and thereby emulates the pleasurable thinking of God.

Word Count: 1,333

Work Cited

Decosimo, David. Ethics as a Work of Charity: Thomas Aquinas and Pagan Virtue. Stanford University Press, 2014.Jacobus, Lee A. World of Ideas. Bedford Bks St Martin'S, 2010.

Posner, Eric A., and Cass R. Sunstein, eds. Law and happiness. University of Chicago Press, 2010.Warne, Christopher. Aristotle's' Nicomachean Ethics': A Reader's Guide. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2006.