“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim, and end

of human existence.” – Aristotle

Aristotle is a philosopher from Stagira, he wrote a lot about topics of

ranging from logic, psychology, political science, biology, botany, rhetoric,
government, physics, geology, metaphysics, and poetry and so on.

          The most famous and through of Aristotle’s ethical works is

his Nicomachean Ethics. This work is an inquiry into the best life for human
beings to live. The life of human flourishing or happiness (eudaimonia) is
the best life. It is important to note that what we translate as “happiness”
is quite different from Aristotle than it is for us. We often consider
happiness to be a mood or an emotion, but Aristotle considers it to be an
activity – a way of living one’s life. Thus, it is possible for one to have an
overall happy life, even if that life has its moments of sadness and pain.
(Barnes, 1984)

TELOS/END

            Virtue ethics cannot be fully appreciated without talking Aristotle’s

ethics. It was Aristotle who said that we must cultivate virtues because
they are the qualities that will help the people to live well. His ethics is
founded on the premise that man strives for an ultimate goal – a Telos. He
called this living well – Eudamonia – generally translated as happiness,
though when applied it refers more to flourishing of the human being. The
achievement of Eudamonia is the end goal of man and man acts towards
this goal. Aristotle would point out that moral philosophy should lead an
individual to grow. It is a virtuous person who will achieve this end. If one
wants to be in the state of eudemonia, one must be virtuous. However,
virtue should also be partnered with wisdom. Wisdom is the ability to see
what is right and the ability to know when to apply it. Thus, wisdom must
always be present in the application of virtue.

          Examples of character virtues would be courage, temperance,

liberality and magnanimity. For example, the courageous person knows
when to be courageous and acts on that knowledge whenever it is
appropriate to do. Each activity of any particular character virtue has a
related excessive or deficient action. The excess related courage, for
example is rashness and the deficiency is cowardice.

          Since excellence is rare, most people will tend more towards an

excess or deficiency than towards excellent action. Aristotle’s claim here is
to aim for the opposite of one’s typical tendency and that eventually this
will lead one closer to excellence.

TEACHER’S INSIGHT

The development of virtuous character is Best understood in the light of

practical wisdom and experience. Mere theory I will not give a good picture
of what is meant between two acts. Virtue would It also entails doing an
act with the right degree and the right timing.

Since the best life is a life of virtue and excellence, and since we are closer
to excellence, the more thoroughly we fulfill our function, the best life is
the life of theoria or contemplation. For Aristotle, however the
contemplation of unchanging things is an activity of full of wonder. Seeking
knowledge might be good, but it is done for the sake of a greater end,
namely having knowledge and contemplating what one knows.

“It is easy to perform a good action, but not easy to acquire a settled habit
of performing such actions.” – Aristotle

          Virtue should be understood as being a habit. It should be

something that has shaped one’s character through constant and
consistent virtuous act. In his Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle devised a
standard of virtue which should be a mean between two vices. Anything
extreme can be considered as a vice. Thus an act to be considered as a
virtue should be neither too much or too less. An example would be
courage. If one is too brave, then one might do some foolish acts that
have not been thought well. But if one does not have enough courage then
one is cowardly and he might not be able to do anything at all and will be
prone to abuse. This is what Aristotle calls, virtue of the mean.