Understanding the concept of Happiness
Happiness is the complete and sufficient good for human beings. Aristotle illustrates that material wealth and comfort contributes to human beings living a fulfilling life but not basically a happy life. One can have a life where he or she has everything in regard to material wealth but they are still not happy because they do not feel like they accomplished everything that they wanted with their lives. Happiness is striving for excellence and achieving that excellence at the end without any sense of regret. ‘He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped…throughout a complete life ‘(Aristotle & Ross, 1101a10), happiness as described by Aristotle is an end goal, one can only be defined to have lived a happy life if he was at the end if his life living excellently in a life that is morally and fundamentally right according to his needs. Happiness is all about working hard in life, achieving one’s life goals and living a successful life where one feels that that they have achieved all that they have ever wanted in life without any regrets (Jacobsen, 43).
Happiness and pleasure is often confused. People live their lives trying to satisfy their own pleasures and those of other people which can be defined as a pleasure prison. Living in pleasure prison does not make one happy because pleasure is something that is temporary while happiness is something that is sustainable in one’s life time (Wild, 256). Pleasure is one time event that can be seductive and at the same time addictive and this is why the obsession of human beings in seeking pleasure is destroying both their mental and spiritual wellbeing. Pleasure is an experience and that is why people engage in experiences such as drinking, drug use, sex or watching games and movies to try and find pleasure and it destroys their lives. Pleasure is something that is short lived unlike happiness which is a chosen path in life (Wild, 259). Pleasure can basically be described as a small section of what true happiness is all about.
The soul is the part of a human being that consist the mind, the character, thoughts and their feelings. Aristotle defines the soul as a sort of natural surroundings that defines change and it rests in living bodies for instance plants, animals and human beings (Aristotle & Ross, 412). He uses the concept of form and matter to describe the relationship between the body and soul illustrating that an ensouled living body is in some way an informed matter. The soul is what forms the active abilities of beings performing vital functions that are naturally performed naturally by organisms of its kind. This is the reason why when an organism engages in certain normal activities for instance movement, thought and nutrition among others is because it does this in virtue of the system abilities which is its soul. ‘The soul neither subsists without a body…. For it is not a body, (Aristotle & Ross, 414), Aristotle illustrates that he soul cannot be defined as a physical thing because it is a system of abilities that are manifested and possessed by the body of a suitable structure. The soul is what motivates one to work hard in life and to act in a morally accepted manner so that they can attain some happiness.
Happiness comes from the soul; it is the dominant drive of human life (Han, 294). Everything that people do in their life is meant to help them attain some sort of happiness. There are those people that believe that becoming wealthy and owning millions will make them happy and there are others who just need a job to make them happy. It is the path that one chooses to follow in their quest for happiness that will determine whether one will end up living a happily fulfilling life. Human beings are rational creatures which makes it impossible for them to attain happiness without virtue. Virtue can be defined as the quality or trait that is good and admired in the society and can help one attain happiness (Han, 295). Moral virtues are cultivated through an individual’s ways of upbringing, if a person is brought up with the knowledge of the importance of kindness, then that individual will grow up with the urge to always be kind and generous to other people because that is what is right and it hence becomes a habit. Thus habit plays a great role in shaping an individual’s character. Virtue is related to happiness and the soul in the sense that one must want to do good in order for him to feel some happiness. If a person shows generosity but feels bad about it, then that does not qualify to be called virtuous. A person is virtuous if the good thing that he or she does comes from within his soul and it makes him feel happy doing it.
It is correct to say that happiness is the greatest good because it comes from doing something genuine for a life time without being forced by anyone or anything. Happiness as earlier defined is the success of doing good and achieving brilliance in one’s lie out of doing good. One cannot be forced to be happy; this is something that is long lived meaning that to endure happiness; one has to ensure that there is continued superiority (Jacobsen, 44).
Pleasure and happiness as earlier illustrated are two different things. Pleasure is short lived and it brings along addiction while happiness is a lifelong concept. People should refrain from pleasurable actions and strive to attain happiness in their lives. It would then be a wise idea to drop and give up a pleasurable action in order to find one’s path to happiness. Actions such as drinking, sex, eating junk foods are all pleasurable action that helps people experience some sense of joy and pleasure but they do not really bring happiness. These are things that one gets bored of with time and if not, they destroy an individual thus preventing them from achieving a greater sense of happiness.
Aristotle defines pleasure as an activity that is neither good nor bad. Pleasure comes from engaging in an activity that one is not hindered from (Aristotle & Ross, 1152). Something is defined to be intrinsically good when it is valuable because of what it is but not for other relational reasons. People mistake pleasure to be something that they really need but they forget the effects that pleasure has on their lives. Pleasure as advised by Aristotle should not be desired for its own sake but rather when it stimulates actions of a healthy nature. Pleasure is instrumentally good with the ground that they are the chief sources of actions and so they can be used to produce virtuous activities (Aristotle & Ross, 1152). The choice to desire a certain pleasure should be dependent on how that pleasure was produced but rather not because of how that pleasure functions.
Works cited
Aristotle, , and W D. Ross. The Nicomachean Ethics. , 2017. Print.
Han, Hyemin. “Purpose as a Moral Virtue for Flourishing.” Journal of Moral Education, vol.
44, no. 3, Sept. 2015, pp. 291–309. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/03057240.2015.1040383.
Jacobsen, Bo. “What Is Happiness?” Existential Analysis: Journal of the Society for
Existential Analysis, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 2007, pp. 39–50. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=aph&AN=24478440&site=ehost-live.
Wild, John. “Pleasure, Happiness and the Common Good in Adler’s Ethical Doctrine.”
American Journal of Economics & Sociology, vol. 2, no. 2, Jan. 1943, pp. 255–260. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=15368072&site=ehost-live.
