Happiness - The Highest Good
Aristotle on Human Happiness, Fulfillment, and Flourishing
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Aristotle, a Pioneering Scientist and Philosopher
Aristotle (384–322 BCE) is considered among the greatest intellectual figures of Western civilization. Aristotle created philosophical and scientific systems that became the basis for numerous academic fields, including psychology, biology, botany, chemistry, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, political theory, and zoology. Aristotle was the founder of formal logic, and through detailed theorizing and observation over 2,000 years ago, he originated the study of zoology.
Scientific Contributions: The scope of Aristotle’s zoological classification of animals into detailed genus and species categories is astonishing. The information he cataloged concerning the anatomy, diet, habitat, and reproductive systems of mammals, reptiles, fish, and insects represent years-long, meticulous investigations.
Philsophical Contributions: In Western history and culture, Aristotle is considered a giant of Western intellectual, philosophical thought. As one of the fathers of Western philosophy, Aristotle’s works on ethics, metaphysics, and the philosophy of science remain powerful, foundational, and influential in contemporary philosophical circles.
Aristotle on Happiness — The Highest Good
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In his influential work the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle outlines eudaemonia, the Greek word for happiness, as the highest good — the foundation and goal of every human effort. Eudaemonia refers to happiness and far more. Eudaemonia goes beyond mere pleasure or fleeting pleasantries. Eudaemonia encompasses happiness, meaning, living well, and human flourishing.
Aristotle posits that Eudaemonia requires the following:
The cultivation of virtue and character over time;
Attaining, in some degree, internal states such as serenity & acceptance;
Meaningful social connection;
External goods like food, water, and shelter.
Human flourishing depends on human beings cultivating, not chasing, happiness. Cultivating happiness depends in part on fulfilling one’s function well. For example, a gardener fulfills his or her function well if the gardener practices gardening with intention, and with the eye and hand of a dedicated craftsperson. An eye that fulfills it’s function sees well, a knife that fulfills its function cuts well, a doctor who fulfills his/her function treats and serves patients well, and a teacher who fulfills his/her function teaches masterfully. Happiness then is not a thing to chase and it is not a destination. Happiness is an activity in which people engage, an activity toward which people strive in an ongoing capacity over time.
Aristotle calls eudaemonia the highest good, the one and only good that is final and sufficient in itself. Aristotle fortifies his view by differentiating happiness from all other virtues, as all other virtues are used as instruments that result in happiness. A central feature of Aristotle’s ethics is the distinction between instrumental goods and intrinsic goods. Instrumental goods move us toward something we desire, while intrinsic goods are good, and are sought for their own sake.
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Aristotle stresses that instrumental goods and intrinsic goods often overlap. Knowledge for example is an intrinsic good — it is good for its own sake. Knowledge also moves us toward additional ends and so can therefore appropriately be called an instrumental good. Aristotle states that honor, pleasure, reason, and excellence can correctly be called instrumental goods AND intrinsic goods, because they lead to happiness, and because humankind frequently chooses them even if they lead to nothing more. Why do all goods, with the exception of eudaemonia, fail to achieve “chief good” status? While attributes such as courage, honor, duty and virtue are good in themselves, they are also good because these attributes make us happy. Every good, except happiness, is an intermediate good that paves the way to the chief final good - happiness.
Arguments against Aristotles’ position regarding eudaemonia (living well combined with meaning and human flourishing) abound. Nietzsche among others found Aristotle’s assumption that all human endeavor aims at one thing to be a nonstarter, as humanity is in a constant state of flux. Nietzsche found it absurd to contend that human beings in the most disparate circumstances and with the most disparate dispositions from all places and times all strive to achieve one same end.
Aristotle’s Conclusion? Happiness is an Activity
Aristotle’s ethical theory as it pertains to human happiness contends that eudaemonia is the chief and highest good. Happiness, meaning, living well, and human flourishing collectively require the cultivation of character and virtue, base-level external goods, meaningful social connections, and require fulfilling function at or above a particular level of excellence.
Happiness/eudaemonia then is an activity in which people engage, a final end toward which a person works over a lifetime. Aristotle notes too that while eudaemonia is an important pursuit at the individual level, cultivating excellence and eudaemonia (happiness/meaning/living well/human flourishing) within ourselves leads to flourishing communities and societies. Eudaemonia promotes excellence and flourishing within the individual and by so doing, promotes greater good, along with happy, flourishing societies.