Sarmad Barrak Introduction to Philosophy November 13, 2014 Prof. Corrigan

Happiness and Virtuous Life
Knowledge is, the understanding of things in which we learn through our life experiences and through the most general truth of art and science. Wisdom however, consists of understanding the fundamental principles and causes of life. Moreover, Aristotle argues that the ultimate goal of life is “living well,” which is happiness. There are multiple activities we participate in as human beings either to stay alive such as eating, drinking, exercising, or to make life easier or better somehow. For example, thinking, learning, and educating ourselves is not just to stay alive but most importantly to live an enhanced life. To Aristotle, “living well” is the ultimate goal of life, because we participate in several physical and mental activities in our life time in the purpose of fulfilling the requirements that leads us to that well life, but not in the purpose of achieving further goals in life.
According to Aristotle, “All men by nature desire to know.” There are a lot of things that we do as human beings, such as feelings, thinking, and reasoning. These are things we desire in this world or believe that they are good in seeking some goals in life. Everyone desires to know or to understand something in his or her lifetime. Everyone is searching for particular rational explanation of something. And we do these things either to stay alive or to “live well”. To Aristotle, living well is happiness and that is what we all are seeking. Happiness to Aristotle is the ultimate goal of this life, it is what all human beings desire and seeks, and it is what makes them what they are, since happiness depends on ourselves.
As a human being, if I was asked why do I seek happiness, I would never be able to provide a satisfying answer. This is due to the fact, or to the beliefs of Aristotle, that happiness is self-evident and human beings wants it not for the sake of getting something else, because happiness is not requisite for achieving something or other goals. Thus happiness or living well is the ultimate goal of life. Based on that, happiness viewed by Aristotle is not something that comes from the outside, rather it is a thing that exists in us, inside. In other words, it is possible for the person to obtain everything they wished for, but still unhappy. Therefore, happiness is an activity that rooted in human beings and it is a choice. As a result, the absence of happiness in a person life could be the possibility of the wrong choice. If being a good man is by reason well and choosing well, hence a good man is a happy man.
Moreover, there is a necessary connection and an important relationship between virtue and happiness. Aristotle believes that, in order to reach happiness, one must obtain or have a good moral character. Happiness as he tells us, is an activity in accordance with virtue because it is the fulfillment of one’s nature by making choices that promote the fullness of ones nature. Thus, happiness is associated with human life and it makes other things more desirable, such as wisdom and the search for the truth. Therefore, happiness is contemplation, which is the most important of all human activities. As a result, it is accordance with the highest virtue, which will be the best in us, human beings.
Understanding the nature and essential aims of human beings is the base of all human virtue. To do distinctly human things well one must be happy, therefore happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. Living things have soul but dead things do not have it. The power of the soul is perfected by habits because a good habit is a virtue. Thus, happiness is an activity in accordance with the perfect virtue. Aristotle tells us that there are two types of virtue, moral and intellectual. Moral virtues are being acquired by habits, not by nature. While intellectual virtue is wisdom or the understanding of something, and this type is acquired by teaching. Each virtue makes us as human beings. We share passions with animals but not intellection, thinking and reasoning are more associate with human activities than passions such as physiological, and feelings.
Moreover, intellect is more shared with the divine, and since happiness is the best activity of the soul in accordance with the perfect virtue and it shared with the divine. Hence, happiness consists of contemplation, which is the perfection of the intellect. The activity of contemplation is the highest activity in which human beings are all seeking. The divine is what enables humans’ fulfillments; therefore we get our notion of the divine through our experiences from human best achievement. In other words, according to Aristotle, when a person’s soul lives in accord with reason, this is called virtue. In accordance, the function of all human beings is to live virtuously and to become as God, which means human being must live life in accord with reason.
The capacity of virtue is natural, but the possession of virtue is not a matter of nature. A good person is that who does good thing continuously until it becomes a habit. And by the process of habituation, that person can come to possess a virtue and be as God. This leads us to that; to become virtuous is by the process of habitation of doing good things, and you cannot become a virtuous by nature because nature cannot change by the process of habituation. Similarly, with character, if a person does not follow reasons, he would not become a good man, because being good is being able reasons well and eventually by habituation this person develops a bad character.
In conclusion, every activity aims at a particular end, everything we do is being done for a reason and a purpose, noting is being done voluntarily and to the sake of just doing it. Every activity we do, eventually comes to an end when it reaches the goal that it started for. The activity of human soul is to express virtue. A good person is who reasons well and thinking well and by continuously doing so, this person will reach virtue by the process of habitation. Happiness is the purpose of human existence; it is not pleasure, because pleasure is not good itself since it’s by nature incomplete, but the existence of virtue is happiness. It is not a temporary state of ones life, but the goal and purpose. It is the perfection of human nature that depends on the exercise of the human reason since man is a rational animal. happiness lies in the action that leads to virtue, which tells us that contemplation is the highest form of moral activity as it is continues and complete.