Philosophy 1301
Reading Response
Aristotle’s Ethics Response
Prompt:
Read the selection from Aristotle’s _Nicomachean Ethics_and write a 1-2 pg. response (typed,12-pt. font, double-spaced). How does Aristotle define happiness? How does he distinguish his definition of happiness from other possible definitions? What do you understand by the term “happiness”, and how is this different from Aristotle’s conception? Do you think that Aristotle’s usage of the word is different from (or similar to) the way in which “happiness” is typically used today? Explain.
Response:
In his discussion about the nature of virtue, he clearly demonstrated that the intellectual virtues are be taught directly, and the moral is to lived to be learned. Aristotle defines happiness as the activity of the soul; it depends on ourselves. But from my understanding by the term of “happiness”, my mind immediately thinks of a happy family. A happy family is a family, who loved each other with an unconditional love and spend large amount of time together, it surely strengthens the relationship in a family. My definition of happiness is pretty simple with fulfill of love. However, after reading Aristotle’s Ethics, my mind changed a lot about the “happiness” definition. Aristotle mentioned mostly about happiness and virtue in his discussion. One of my favorite quote in this reading: “Excellence, being two kinds, intellectual and moral, intellectual excellence in the main owes both its birth and its growth to teaching, while moral excellence comes about as a result of habit” Human being is different than either animal or plants because we have the responsibility of our choices. We are the only one, who has capable of acting according to principles. Besides that, happiness can also find from the complete virtue. To find the happiness, it
takes the whole life to find happiness from friend, family, health and knowledge. And usually, in life, people find lesser good because it’s...