Analysis on Aristotle

Our modern concept of happiness appears to be one synonymous with contentment. A happy person is one who leads a life in which they are content with their actions. However, the Aristotelian conception of happiness, or of eudaemonia, is a compound, made of matter and spirit, of sense and intelligence, of animal conditioning and rational, all of this crowned and guided by wisdom and contemplation. Happiness, according to Aristotle is contingent on living a good …

…realist, describes happiness from an objective point of view. An action is right and should be performed because it promotes the good; a thing is good because it promotes happiness; activities produce happiness because they are in accordance with virtue and a character trait is a virtue because it disposes one towards performing right actions. Works Cited Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, trans. G. Cronk in Philosophy East and West: Classical and Modern Sources (Hartcourt & Brace, 1999) pp. 65 –82