My Happiness

Despite the end might be different, it has its ultimate outcome, the goal each craft or action aims to. The things we do, or wish for, eventually have their final point. Thus some person wants to become rich, so he can buy big house, where all his family would live, which might bring feeling of satisfaction and security. Hence he is doing or wishing something for the sake of something else, and this chain might go on and on. Aristotle realizes that these desires are empty and futile, and he suggests that there is something beyond them, otherwise all human activities become senseless. He refers to it as to “best good”, and by examining its nature, Aristotle concludes that happiness is the best good, the ultimate end of every action. “Happiness, then, is apparently something complete and self-sufficient, since it is the end of the things achievable in action.” (p.8) According Aristotle, people can achieve happiness by some sort of cultivation, or by fortune. The former is much better and more preferable, since it involves learning and attention, while the latter is just a mere chance. Therefore everyone can reach happiness through

Happiness is an essential goal for most people. From books and expensive classes that teach people how to achieve happiness to the fundamental right of “the pursuit of happiness” in the Declaration of Independence, the importance of happiness is evident in society. This causes the rise to two fundamental questions: “How does one attain happiness?” and “,How does happiness create a meaningful life?” Both happiness and living a meaningful life are achieved simultaneously. The search for happiness and the factors that make it brings meaning to life. Happiness can stem from several factors such as wisdom and knowledge, savoring life and its experiences, and even suffering and pain. Analyzing these factors brings meaning to one’s life.

John Stuart Mill and Aristotle both address the idea of happiness as the goal of human life. They explain that all human action is at the foundation of their moral theories. Mill addresses the Greatest Happiness Principle, which is the greatest amount of pleasure to the least amount of pain. Similarly, Aristotle addresses happiness through the idea of eudaimonia and human flourishing. According to Aristotle, eudaimonia is happiness, it is the state of contemplation that individuals are in when they have reached actualized happiness. Also referred to as happiness or human flourishing, it is the ultimate goal of human beings. Happiness is “living well and acting well.” He explains that once general happiness becomes recognized as the moral standard, natural sentiment will nurture feelings that promote utilitarianism. According to Aristotle, happiness is a state of being. Both Mill and Aristotle agree that in order to attain true happiness, human beings must engage in activities that are distinct to humans and that make them happy. Aristotle’s idea of eudaimonia and human flourishing is a more compelling argument than Mill’s for happiness and the final end because Aristotle explains that the virtues bring human beings to happiness.

The amalgam of the human experience and the pursuit of happiness is that of an instinctive and inexorable nature; perchance in happiness lays the fundamental purpose of the human experience. Happiness, throughout the lapse of time—regardless of multifarious discrepancies, such as nationality or age, has proven to be an all-inclusive search. Whether it is derived from power, wealth, success, or elsewhere, happiness is a perpetual pursuit. Illustrious philosopher Aristotle believed “happiness depends upon ourselves (Aristotle)”, speaking to a notion of happiness being an individual endeavor.

"Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life." -Omar Khayyam. The center of one's life and the ultimate life goal should be the desire to be happy. Although in some cases creating something meaningful does bring happiness to a person's life, the sole purpose is to live for your own happiness and no one else's. Life's decisions should only be based upon the desire to make one's self happy. In the end, you only get one life so why live it for someone else? Everybody's idea of what happiness and what being happy consists of will be different. There are many factors that determine how a person will go about achieving true happiness.

From reading the works of Aristotle and Quintilian, I have developed insights on philosophical examinations such as the underlying meaning of happiness, virtues, oration, and rhetoric. Aristotle argues, “happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with perfect virtue” (1102a5-6). While dissecting his point, I noted that every action we pursue has an end goal, and that end goal will lead us to strive for another goal, and so on and so forth. So, what is the end goal? Aristotle believes it is happiness, as we subconsciously seek out pleasures in life that bring us happiness. I agree completely, as every inquiry will ultimately lead to our own feeling of complete contentment. As students, we study hard to earn good grades and help us graduate.

From the beginning of their evolution, human beings have been searching for the meaning of happiness. While many may see this to be an inconsequential question, others have devoted entire lives to the search for happiness. One such person who devoted a great deal of thought to the question of man's happiness was the famous ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle. In his book The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle discussed the meaning of happiness and what it meant to live a good life. He asserted that the devise which has been invented to create what is good for man is called "politics;" and it "uses the rest of the sciences"¦so that this end must be the good for man." (Aristotle, I, ii) Aristotle also identified four general means by which people live their lives in order to gain happiness, but stated that only one was a means by which a person could actually attain it. According to Aristotle, it was not political power, wealth, or worldly pleasures by which a person could achieve real happiness, it was living a contemplative life.

In his Nicomachean ethics, Aristotle argues that happiness is the chief good. He says that not all ends of actions are final ends, but that the chief good is something final. Because it’s the final end, or the chief good, we perform many different actions in order to achieve it and it is more desirable than all of the actions or goals that come before it. In any situation where we are working towards happiness, it is always the end goal, never the in-between. No one aims for happiness because it will open more doors in the future, but solely because it is desirable and thought to be a much sought-after end state.

How to go about acquiring true happiness has been a debate for as long as man has existed. There are even conflicts over what happiness is, is it attainable, and should everyone have the right to pursue it. For Aristotle, happiness begins with another concept, the ultimate good. Every action inheritably aims “at some good; the good, therefore, has been well defined as that at which all things aim.” (1094a, 378). Aristotle goes on to explain that happiness must then be the ultimate good, since “both the common run of people and cultivated men,” aim to achieve it for itself, even though they call it different names (1095a, 379). Now, with the understanding as to what happiness is the answer to for Aristotle, to further understand happiness, it

to see in our lives as a whole. We will not achieve happiness simply by

Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics I.7, defined happiness as the central good that motivates all of man’s endeavors (function), in that happiness “is in itself worthy of pursuit more final than that which is worthy of pursuit for the sake of something else… is always desirable in itself and never for the sake of something else.” (NE 1.7, 1097a 32-34) What is interesting to note here, is that in this sense, happiness, rather than a mental state of the mind, is perceived as a good; happiness is something that serves an end – in other words, the goal of a function. If happiness is the ultimate purpose, then what is the human function that achieves it? More problematically, this assumes that humans must have a function in the first place! In my essay, I will examine Aristotle’s argument for the function of man, and attempt to provide commentary that serves to support his position.

According to the philosophy of happiness (14, 15, 16 & 17), Aristotle stated the factors that make happiness as good health, money, relationships and good moral behavior. Aristotle pointed out that happiness was the ultimate desire for human being leaving nothing more to be desired. The happiness is sought for its own sake unlike other things which are sought in order to achieve happiness. Aristotle understood that for an individual to be happy one must be of good morals and can suffer to achieve the greater happiness later in the long run. Many individuals believe that

“For we may be said to desire all things as means to something else except indeed happiness, as happiness is the end or perfect state” (page 230, Mayfield). As Aristotle said 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

Aristotle, one of the greatest philosophers of all time created an idea that happiness is the ultimate end goal. This world renowned philosopher argues that exercising a fulfilling life will lead to happiness. Likewise, happiness is said to be the ultimate end goal of all activities in life. Basically, Aristotle portrays every activity as a subordinate to becoming happy. He argues that being self sufficient, and leading a fulfilling life will create happiness through virtue. A virtuous person is noble and possess the ability to rationalize. In order to be noble one must posses the ability to create equilibrium of the soul. That is, staying within the mean. Similar to the mean, Aristotle depicts

It is common sense that all the human beings would like to live a happy life and they will spare no efforts in order to realize the purpose of really living a happy life in the end. However, different people have different definitions toward what a happy life is and they tend to have different standards as for how a life is that can be regarded as a happy life. There is no doubt that people will then try different means in order to pursue a happy life based on their definition toward what a happy life is. Therefore, the following will talk about the pursuit of a happy life from the perspectives of both Dalai Lama in The Art of Happiness and Viktor E. Frankl in Man’s Searching for Meaning, during which the experiences of some characters from the film Forrest Gump will be applied as evidence. Generally speaking, the pursuit of a happy life in the minds of Dalai Lama and Viktor E. Frankl can be achieved via experiencing sufferings and adversity. It is hoped that this analysis can help people understand what a happy is from a different point of view.