Aristotle
Aristotle believes that happiness is the ultimate goal in life. You can't reach ultimate happiness unless you work hard and become successful. This is where his idea of self sufficiency comes into play, giving two main rules to live by, that (1) "...live to extent which even when isolated makes life desirable and lacking in nothing." Also (2) "Do things that which is always desirable in it and never for the sake of something else." The fact that you are the only one that is responsible for these actions is what makes it significant, because happiness is to be explained in terms of reason. To Aristotle, this means that happiness depends on the actualization of one's rationality.A human's function is to engage in "an activity of the soul which is in accordance with virtue" and which "is in conformity with reason." The two kinds of virtue are intellectual and moral. Our virtues are what make us all individual and different. Intellectual virtues are what we are born with and what we learn. It is our nature as humans and what we have inherited that makes desire to learn. As humans, we develop wisdom to help guide us to a good life. With the intellectual virtue you develop two different kinds of wisdom: practic
"Happiness is the end or perfect state." As stated by Aristotle that our ultimate goal is happiness but in order to reach happiness you have to succeed. "Relaxation then is not an end. We enjoy it as a means to activity; but it seems that the happy life is a life of virtue, and such a life is serious, it is not one of mere amusement. We speak of serious things too as better than things which are ridiculous and amusing, and of the activity of the better part of man's being or of the better man as always the more virtuous." As an individual your goal is happiness and as a species their goal is to make the citizens happy. As happiness is the function or goal of the individual, it is also the function of the state... this being a natural human organization whose goal is to maximize happiness for its citizens. The law comes natural to humans, which makes humans work in harmony. As human we have social instincts. As an individual you have your own state of character. When stating that "Some people think that men are made good by nature, others by habit, others again by teaching," Aristotle attempts to explain how everyone is an individual and has different short-term goals. The soul is made up of three things: passions, faculties, and states of character. Since virtue is in our soul one of the three must be it. Passions are uncontrolled feelings such as appetite, anger, fear, confidence, and hatred. With virtue you have to be praised or blamed and with your passions you can't be. We are born with faculties like we are with passions. Since passions and faculties are not defined, state of character is virtue. State of character is our
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Approximate Word count = 1116
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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