Aristotle on the Good Life

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato, and teacher of alexander the
great. Aristotle’s views on living well begin with a consideration of ends and means. Suppose I want a car
—the car is my end or goal. I can earn, borrow, or steal the money to get the car—these are my means.
The means I choose depends on which is easier, quicker, likelier to succeed, etc. Thinking about the
goal we are aiming at, and the means we must employ to reach that goal is practical thinking. But such
thinking bears no fruit until it results in purposeful action, which is acting with some end, goal, or
purpose in mind. Purposeful action contrasts with aimless or thoughtless action, which is action with no
end in view. But suppose I get my car? Getting a car is itself a means to another end, say of getting to
school or work. And of course getting to school or work is the means to another end, getting to class or a
job. And these are the means of making money, which is itself a means of buying food, clothing, and
shelter, which are the means to staying alive. Such considerations led Aristotle to wonder whether there
is any final or ultimate end, an end for which everything else is a means, an end that is not a means to
anything else. In short, he wanted to know if there is an ultimate end, goal, or purpose for human life.
Aristotle argued that as we mature, we act less aimlessly and more purposefully. We try to develop a
plan for living that unites all our various purposes. Without a plan for living, we don’t know what we
are trying to do or why we’re trying to do it.

Moreover, not just any plan will do—we need the right plan, which is one that aims at the final or
ultimate end. But what is the final end of human life, the end that all of us ought to aim at? For
Aristotle, the final end of human life is to flourish, to live well, to have a good life. All actions should
aim at this end of course, in order to live at all we need food, clothing, and shelter, but living is itself the
means to the end of living well. And what is living well a means to?

Aristotle says that living well is the final end for humans; it is not a means to anything else. Aristotle
thinks this is obvious because few people want to live poorly. But now another question arises: don’t
different people have different ideas about what a good life is? For some it may consist of
accumulating wealth; for others, it is having power or being famous or experiencing pleasure. And if
people construe (interpret) the good life differently, if they have different desires,

How can there be one right plan for living well? How can there be one final end that we all ought to
seek? To answer these questions Aristotle argued that not all desires are of the same sort.

There are acquired desires, which differ between individuals, and Natural desires, which are the same
for all individuals.

Acquired desires—say for caviar( egg, spawn )—correspond to our wants, whereas natural desires—say
for food—correspond to our needs.

Acquired desires or wants correspond to apparent goods (superficial/deceptive); things that appear
good because you want them. Natural desires or needs correspond to real goods; things that are good
for you whether you want them or not.
With these considerations in mind, Aristotle states that the good life consists in the possession, over
the course of a lifetime, of all those things that are really good for us. What is really good for any one
of us corresponds to the natural needs that are the same for all of us. Thus what is good for one person
is good for another; in other words, there is a right plan for living well.

So what are these real goods that we should all seek to obtain in order to live well? According to
Aristotle, they are:

1) bodily goods – health, vitality (energy, liveliness, strength), vigor (stamina), and pleasure;
2) external goods – food, drink, shelter, clothing, and sleep; and
3) goods of the soul – knowledge, skill, love, friendship, aesthetic (artistic, appealing) enjoyment, self-
esteem, and honor.

The two types of good are:

 Limited goods—we can have more of them than we need.

Goods of the soul are unlimited goods—we cannot have more of them than we need.

But surely the knowledge of the good life isn’t sufficient to actually living a good life? I may know, for
example, that drinking alcohol is bad for me but do it anyway. So how do we learn to desire these real
goods?

Aristotle argued that the way to bridge the gap between knowledge of the good life and actually living it
was through the development of a good moral character. And this entails (require) developing
good habits. A good habit allows us to perform certain actions without effort. We can have a good
habit of playing the piano, studying hard, hitting golf balls, or thinking well. We can also habitually make
good choices to avoid overeating or drinking too much.

Aristotle calls good habits as: 

Types of virtues or excellences.

1. Intellectual virtues – Virtues of the mind.

2. Moral virtues – are virtues exemplified by a regular disposition to choose correctly.

For Aristotle, moral virtue plays a special role in living well. The reason moral virtue—the habit of
making the right choices—is so important is that our choices determine whether we live well. If we
make too many bad choices we will live poorly. So we need to develop the good habits or virtues which
help us obtain what is really good for us, as opposed to bad habits or vices which lead us toward things
that merely appear good. Good habits or moral virtues are the principle means to having good lives
because they allow us to habitually make the choices that both constitute and lead to good lives.

The most important moral virtues or habits are:

Moderation, courage, and justice.

Moderation (control/balance) keeps us from overindulging in pleasure or seeking too much of the
limited goods.

Courage (bravery/nerve) is having the disposition to do what it takes to live a good life, and

Justice (fairness/impartiality) is the virtue that allows us to have friends and enjoy the benefits of
cooperation.

However, both knowledge of the good life and good habits may not be enough because living well is
not completely within our control. Why? First, some real goods, like wealth or health, are not
completely within our power to possess. And second, we didn’t create the initial conditions of our birth
or the environment into which we were born. Thus moral virtue, while necessary, doesn’t guarantee a
good life. We also need to be fortunate or lucky. However, if we are knowledgeable, virtuous, and
fortunate we will have good, meaningful lives.

Summary – The end, goal, purpose (or meaning) of human life is to live well. We do this by accumulating,
over the course of our lives, all the real goods that correspond to our natural needs; and we increase our
chances of having good lives by cultivating good habits. In addition, we also need good luck.

Happiness defines a good life.

Does NOT come from sensate pleasure.

It is that which comes from living a life of virtue, a life of excellence, manifested from the personal to
the global scale.

It is the activities that express virtue that control happiness, and the contrary activities that control its
contrary. (Nicomachean Ethics 1:10)

Making sure that one avoids sugary and processed foods to keep healthy.

Taking care of environment through proper waste management.

• Virtue

• It is the constant practice of good no matter how difficult the circumstances may be.

• It is the excellence of character that empowers one to do and be good.

• Virtue, then, being of two kinds, intellectual and moral,

• intellectual virtue in the main owes its birth and growth to teaching (for which reason it requires
experience and time),

• while moral virtue comes about as a result of habit. (Nicomachean Ethics 2:1)

Aristotle's Definition of Happiness

"Happiness depends on ourselves." More than anybody else, Aristotle enshrines(cherish/treasure)
happiness as a central purpose of human life and a goal in itself. That is, happiness depends on
the cultivation of virtue (goodness, moral excellence power to do good, strength). Aristotle was
convinced that a genuinely happy life required the fulfillment of a broad range of conditions, including
physical as well as mental well-being. In this way he introduced the idea of a science of happiness in
the classical sense, in terms of a new field of knowledge. Aristotle argues that virtue is achieved by
maintaining the Mean, which is the balance between two excesses. According to Aristotle, education is
necessary if we are to produce a society of happy as well as productive individuals.Happiness as the
Ultimate Purpose of Human Existence. The key question Aristotle seeks to answer in these lectures is
"What is the ultimate purpose of human existence? What is that end or goal for which we should direct
all of our activities? Everywhere we see people seeking pleasure, wealth, and a good reputation. But
while each of these has some value, none of them can occupy the place of the chief good for which
humanity should aim. To be an ultimate end, an act must be self-sufficient and final, "that which is
always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else" (Nicomachean Ethics, 1097a30-34),
and it must be attainable by man. Aristotle claims that nearly everyone would agree that happiness is
the end which meets all these requirements. It is easy enough to see that we desire money, pleasure,
and honor only because we believe that these goods will make us happy. It seems that all other goods
are a means towards obtaining happiness, while happiness is always an end in itself.

Fun Fact:

Concept of living well and doing well is known as “eudumonia” came from the greek word “eu” which
means “good” and “daimon” meaning “spirit".

Taken together, it generally refers to the good life, which is marked by happiness and excellence. It is a
life filled with meaningful endeavors that empower the human person to be the best version of
himself/herself.

Example:

If one is a student, then he/she acts to be the best version of a student by studying well and fulfilling the
demands of school. If one is an athlete, then he/she strives to be the best version of an athlete by
training hard as well as joining and winning in sports competitions. According to Aristotle, happiness is
the ultimate end of human action. It is that which people pursue for its own sake. Financial stability for
one’s family. Harmony and peace as a reward for taking care of the environment.The power achieved
from winning the elections. Now such a thing as happiness above all else, is held to be; for this we
choose always for itself and never for the sake of something else, but honor, pleasure, reason, and every
virtue we choose indeed for themselves, but we choose them also for the sake of happiness, judging by
that by means of them we shall be happy. Happiness, on the other hand, no one choose for anything
other than itself. (Nichomachean Ethics 2:7)
 Different schools of thought:

Materialism - Led by Democritus and Leucippus. Only material things matters. It is what makes us attain
happiness.

Hedonism - Led by Epicurus. Pleasure has always been the priority of hedonists. Life is about obtaining
and indulging in pleasure because life is limited. “Eat, Drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.”

Stoicism - Led by Epicurus. To generate happiness, one must learn to distance oneself and be apathetic.
Happiness can only be attained by a careful practice of apathy. We should in this worldview, adopt the
fact that some things are not within our control. The sooner we realize this, the happier we can become

NOTE: Original term of apathetic is “ apatheia” which means to be indifferent

Theism - Using God as a fulcrum of their existence. The ultimate basis of happiness is the communion
with God. The world where we are is only just a temporary reality where we have to maneuver around
while waiting for the ultimate return to the hands of God.

Humanism - Espouses the freedom of man to carve his own destiny and to legislate his own laws, free
from the shackles of a God that monitors and controls. Man is literally the captain of his own ship.
Humanists see themselves not merely as stewards of the creation but as individuals who are in control
of themselves and the world outside them.

The Greek word that usually gets translated as "happiness" is eudaimonia, and like most translations
from ancient languages, this can be misleading. The main trouble is that happiness (especially in modern
America) is often conceived of as a subjective state of mind, as when one says one is happy when one is
enjoying a cool beer on a hot day, or is out "having fun" with one's friends. For Aristotle, however,
happiness is a final end or goal that encompasses the totality of one's life. It is not something that can
be gained or lost in a few hours, like pleasurable sensations. It is more like the ultimate value of your
life as lived up to this moment, measuring how well you have lived up to your full potential as a human
being. For this reason, one cannot really make any pronouncements about whether one has lived a
happy life until it is over. Just as we would not say of a football game that it was a "great game" at
halftime (indeed we know of many such games that turn out to be blowouts or duds.For the same
reason we cannot say that children are happy, any more than we can say that an acorn is a tree, for the
potential for a flourishing human life has not yet been realized. As Aristotle says, "for as it is not one
swallow or one fine day that makes a spring, so it is not one day or a short time that makes a man
blessed and happy." (Nicomachean Ethics, 1098a18)

 
The Hierarchical View of Nature

In order to explain human happiness, Aristotle draws on a view of nature he derived from his
biological investigations. If we look at nature, we notice that there are four different kinds of things that
exist in the world, each one defined by a different purpose:
Mineral: rocks, metals and other lifeless things. The only goal which these things seek is to come to a
rest. They are "beyond stupid" since they are inanimate objects with no soul.

Vegetative: plants and other wildlife. Here we see a new kind of thing emerge, something which is alive.
Because plants seek nourishment and growth, they have souls and can be even said to be satisfied when
they attain these goals.

Animal: all the creatures we study as belonging to the animal kingdom. Here we see a higher level of life
emerge: animals seek pleasure and reproduction, and we can talk about a happy or sad dog, for
example, to the extent that they are healthy and lead a pleasant life.

Human: what is it that makes human beings different from the rest of the animal kingdom? Aristotle
answers: Reason. Only humans are capable of acting according to principles, and in so doing taking
responsibility for their choices. We can blame Johnny for stealing the candy since he knows it is wrong,
but we wouldn't blame an animal since it doesn't know any better.

It seems that our unique function is to reason: by reasoning things out we attain our ends, solve our
problems, and hence live a life that is qualitatively different in kind from plants or animals.

The good for a human is different from the good for an animal because we have different capacities or
potentialities. We have a rational capacity and the exercising of this capacity is thus the perfecting of
our natures as human beings. For this reason, pleasure alone cannot constitute human happiness, for
pleasure is what animals seek and human beings have higher capacities than animals. The goal is not
to annihilate our physical urges, however, but rather to channel them in ways that are appropriate to
our natures as rational animals. Thus Aristotle gives us his definition of happiness: the function of man
is to live a certain kind of life, and this activity implies a rational principle, and the function of a good
man is the good and noble performance of these, and if any action is well performed it is performed in
accord with the appropriate excellence: if this is the case, then happiness turns out to be an activity of
the soul in accordance with virtue. (Nicomachean Ethics, 1098a13)

The Pursuit of Happiness as the Exercise of Virtue

In this last quote we can see another important feature of Aristotle's theory: the link between the
concepts of happiness and virtue. Aristotle tells us that the most important factor in the effort to
achieve happiness is to have a good moral character — what he calls "complete virtue." But being
virtuous is not a passive state: one must act in accordance with virtue. Nor is it enough to have a few
virtues; rather one must strive to possess all of them. As Aristotle writes, He is happy who lives in
accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance
period but throughout a complete life. (Nicomachean Ethics, 1101a10)

According to Aristotle, happiness consists in achieving, through the course of a whole lifetime, all the
goods — health, wealth, knowledge, friends, etc. — that lead to the perfection of human nature and to
the enrichment of human life. This requires us to make choices, some of which may be very difficult.
Often the lesser good promises immediate pleasure and is more tempting, while the greater good is
painful and requires some sort of sacrifice. For example, it may be easier and more enjoyable to spend
the night watching television, but you know that you will be better off if you spend it researching for
your term paper. Developing a good character requires a strong effort of will to do the right thing,
even in difficult situations.

Another example is the taking of drugs, which is becoming more and more of a problem in our society
today. For a fairly small price, one can immediately take one’s mind off of one’s troubles and experience
deep euphoria by popping an oxycontin pill or snorting some cocaine. Yet, inevitably, this short-term
pleasure will lead to longer term pain.

A few hours later you may feel miserable and so need to take the drug again, which leads to a never-
ending spiral of need and relief. Addiction inevitably drains your funds and provides a burden to your
friends and family. All of those virtues — generosity, temperance, friendship, courage, etc. — that make
up the good life appear to be conspicuously absent in a life of drug use. Aristotle would be strongly
critical of the culture of "instant gratification" which seems to predominate in our society today. In order
to achieve the life of complete virtue, we need to make the right choices, and this involves keeping our
eye on the future, on the ultimate result we want for our lives as a whole. We will not achieve happiness
simply by enjoying the pleasures of the moment. Unfortunately, this is something most people are not
able to overcome in themselves. As he laments, "the mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their
tastes, preferring a life suitable to beasts"Later in the Ethics Aristotle draws attention to the concept
of  akrasia, or weakness of the will. In many cases the overwhelming prospect of some great pleasure
obscures one's perception of what is truly good. Fortunately, this natural disposition is curable through
training, which for Aristotle meant education and the constant aim to perfect virtue. As he puts it, a
clumsy archer may indeed get better with practice, so long as he keeps aiming for the target.Note also
that it is not enough to think about doing the right thing, or even intend to do the right thing: we have
to actually do it. Thus, it is one thing to think of writing the great American novel, another to actually
write it. When we impose a form and order upon all those letters to actually produce a compelling story
or essay, we are manifesting our rational potential, and the result of that is a sense of deep fulfilment.
Or to take another example, when we exercise our citizenship by voting, we are manifesting our rational
potential in yet another way, by taking responsibility for our community. There are myriad ways in
which we can exercise our latent virtue in this way, and it would seem that the fullest attainment of
human happiness would be one which brought all these ways together in a comprehensive rational life-
plan. There is yet another activity few people engage in which is required to live a truly happy life,
according to Aristotle: intellectual contemplation. Since our nature is to be rational, the ultimate
perfection of our natures is rational reflection. This means having an intellectual curiosity which
perpetuates that natural wonder to know which begins in childhood but seems to be stamped out
soon thereafter. For Aristotle, education should be about the cultivation of character, and this
involves a practical and a theoretical component. The practical component is the acquisition of a
moral character, as discussed above. The theoretical component is the making of a philosopher. Here
there is no tangible reward, but the critical questioning of things raises our minds above the realm of
nature and closer to the abode of the gods.
Friendship

For Aristotle, friendship is one of the most important virtues in achieving the goal
of eudaimonia  (happiness). While there are different kinds of friendship, the highest is one that is
based on virtue (arête).

This type of friendship is based on a person wishing the best for their friends regardless of utility or
pleasure. Aristotle calls it a “... complete sort of friendship between people who are good and alike in
virtue ...” (Nicomachean Ethics, 1156b07-08).

This type of friendship is long lasting and tough to obtain because these types of people are hard to
come by and it takes a lot of work to have a complete, virtuous friendship. Aristotle notes that one
cannot have a large number of friends because of the amount of time and care that a virtuous
friendship requires.

Aristotle values friendship so highly that he argues friendship supersedes justice and honor. First of
all, friendship seems to be so valued by people that no one would choose to live without friends.

People who value honor will likely seek out either flattery or those who have more power than they
do, in order that they may obtain personal gain through these relationships. Aristotle believes that
the love of friendship is greater than this because it can be enjoyed as it is. “Being loved, however,
people enjoy for its own sake, and for this reason it would seem it is something better than being
honored and that friendship is chosen for its own sake” (Nicomachean Ethics, 1159a25-28).

The emphasis on enjoyment here is noteworthy: a virtuous friendship is one that is most enjoyable
since it combines pleasure and virtue together, thus fulfilling our emotional and intellectual natures.

The Golden Mean

Aristotle’s ethics is sometimes referred to as “virtue ethics” since its focus is not on the moral weight
of duties or obligations, but on the development of character and the acquiring of virtues such as
courage, justice, temperance, benevolence, and prudence. And anyone who knows anything about
Aristotle has heard his doctrine of virtue as being a “golden mean” between the extremes of excess
and deficiency. Courage, for example, is a mean regarding the feeling of fear, between the deficiency
of rashness (too little fear) and the excess of cowardice (too much fear). Justice is a mean between
getting or giving too much and getting or giving too little. Benevolence is a mean between giving to
people who don’t deserve it and not giving to anyone at all. Aristotle is not recommending that one
should be moderate in all things; since one should at all times exercise the virtues. One can’t reason "I
should be cruel to my neighbor now since I was too nice to him before." The mean is a mean between
two vices, and not simply a mean between too much and too little. Furthermore, the mean is “relative
to ourselves,” indicating that one person’s mean may be another person’s extreme. Milo the wrestler,
as Aristotle puts it, needs more gruel than a normal person, and his mean diet will vary accordingly.
Similarly for the moral virtues. Aristotle suggests that some people are born with weaker wills than
others; for these people, it may actually be a mean to flee in battle (the extremes being to get
slaughtered or commit suicide). Here we see the flexibility in Aristotle’s account: as soon as he begins
to lay down some moral rules, he relaxes them in order to take into consideration the variety and
contingency of particular temperaments. Aristotle’s doctrine of the mean is well in keeping with
ancient ways of thinking which conceived of justice as a state of equilibrium between opposing forces.
In the early cosmologies, the Universe is stabilized as a result of the reconciliation between the
opposing forces of Chaos and Order. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus conceived of right living as
acting in accordance with the Logos, the principle of the harmony of opposites; and Plato defined
justice in the soul as the proper balance among its parts. Like Plato, Aristotle thought of the virtuous
character along the lines of a healthy body. According to the prevailing medical theory of his day,
health in the body consists of an appropriate balance between the opposing qualities of hot, cold, the
dry, and the moist. The goal of the physician is to produce a proper balance among these elements, by
specifying the appropriate training and diet regimen, which will of course be different for every
person. Similarly with health in the soul: exhibiting too much passion (desire/craving) may lead to
reckless acts of anger or violence which will be injurious to one’s mental well-being as well as to
others; but not showing any passion is a denial of one’s human nature and results in the sickly
qualities of morbidity, dullness (lifeless), and antisocial behavior. The healthy path is the “middle
path,” though remember it is not exactly the middle, given that people who are born with extremely
passionate natures will have a different mean than those with sullen, dispassionate natures. Aristotle
concludes that goodness of character is “a settled condition of the soul which wills or chooses the
mean relatively to ourselves, this mean being determined by a rule or whatever we like to call that by
which the wise man determines it.” (Nicomachean Ethics, 1006b36). In conclusion, according to
Aristotle, what is happiness? Happiness is the ultimate end and purpose of human existence
Happiness is not pleasure, nor is it virtue. It is the exercise of virtue. Happiness cannot be achieved
until the end of one's life. Hence it is a goal and not a temporary state. Happiness is the perfection of
human nature. Since man is a rational animal, human happiness depends on the exercise of his
reason. Happiness depends on acquiring a moral character, where one displays the virtues of courage,
generosity, justice, friendship, and citizenship in one's life. These virtues involve striking a balance or
"mean" between an excess and a deficiency. Happiness requires intellectual contemplation, for this is
the ultimate realization of our rational capacities.

Summary

The good life is marked by happiness brought about by virtuous human actions and decisions that
affect the individual self and the greater community. It is characterized by a life of flourishing of
oneself and of others. The good life does not happen in a bubble where only one person is flourishing;
others have to be in it, too. At present, science and technology has been, for the most part, at the
forefront of man’s attempts at finding this happiness. The only question at the end of the day is
whether science is taking the right path toward attaining what it really means to live a good life.