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Compare or Contrast RG Revised
Compare or Contrast RG Revised
Concept of Happiness
Introduction
Being happy is hard to achieve. Many concepts of happiness have been made to guide
people to be happy or to give people a grasp of happiness. One would be Aristotle’s concept of
activity, and the activities are based on virtue. Another concept would be the modern concept of
happiness, where happiness is a “state or mood of the consciousness” and is not based on
happiness. Happiness is achieved through activity and does not just come to people and
become a mood. There is always an external factor that affects the mood of people that is
why, even if happiness is just a mood, it is also affected by activities. This paper will be
selection, the activities based on the best virtue, and collection, the collection of all activities is a
problem in Aristotle’s concept. (Pakaluk, 316) An argument of Aristotle also discusses that
happiness is achieved from the activities of virtue. This is the main idea of his concept of
happiness. This means that happiness is only achieved if an individual accomplished his or her
activities, according to his or her standards. These standards come along with virtue.
It can be seen that happiness is achieved by the way of life. This is what Aristotle
proposes. The problem here is that, once the standards are broken, or become inappropriate in a
time or place, the happiness stops. For example, if an individual’s standard of activities is
appropriate for a democratic country, once the country enters war, it will not be appropriate
anymore. This will stop the happiness of the individual. However, because it is the individual’s
Concept of Happiness 3
virtue, he or she will continue on doing such activities because that is where his happiness
depends.
This concept suggests that happiness is just a mood of the conscious mind. It is not based
on the way of life a man follows. Here, happiness is something that one believes to exist in his or
her mind. If a man believes he is happy, then he is happy. Also, the modern concept of happiness
dejects the fact that happiness is based on activities. This is because, if happiness was to be based
on something, then if that thing is taken away, then happiness will also be gone. For example, if
an athlete, who really loves being an athlete, becomes paralyzed, then he would not be happy.
And he can only gain happiness from self-contentment where he should believe that all is well.
Happiness, as a state of the consciousness, means that it can be easily taken away. Many
external things affect the emotions of individuals. If a man has an officemate that spills his
coffee every day, even if they were just accidents, he will be angry. Here, if one believes that he
is happy, then the cause of his happiness will be his belief. But because there are many other
external things that can cause a change of emotion, then happiness is not permanent.
The power here comes from the way an individual thinks. If an individual have a
harmonious mind, then the mind does not categorize any external things, thus, making the factors
either positive or negative. But if the mind were trained to receive such factors in a positive way,
In the Aristotle’s concept, happiness will be based on activities. While in the modern
concept, happiness is based on beliefs. This shows that the modern concept has more
Concept of Happiness 4
weaknesses. A belief can easily be swayed by some external thing. While for Aristotle’s concept,
one can only stop in being happy if he or she dies. For example, even if someone becomes
paralyzed, he or she can still think. Thinking is the base of all activities. Without thinking, no
one can even establish a standard for activities. And once the standards are established,
everything else becomes easier. Happiness is longer and easier to achieve when it is based on the
way of life.
For the modern concept, it’s weak because many things can affect the mood of a person.
The base is so unstable that it can easily be swayed. There are so many external factors that
affect the life of individuals. These factors are then processed in the mind according to the biases
of the mind. And after that, the product can be an action and an emotion. Different factors bring
different results. Then if one only believes that he is happy, if something against his bias comes
across, then his happiness will be gone. If the interest of the individual is not attained, then the
happiness, if it exists, can be achieved as what Michael Pakaluk claims in the book Aristotle's
Conclusion
Both concepts of happiness can be used if the other is not possible. This is just to stay
happy. Being happy brings all other kinds of positive things to one’s life. An example would be,
if a man is happy, he sees things in the positive way. Being happy also helps people become
emotionally stable. The only question is how can people be happy? In this case, Aristotle’s
concept of happiness is more powerful. It does not only give happiness but can also give people a
Works Cited
Eagleton, T. The Meaning of Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Press, 2005.