Happiness in Nicomachean Ethics

For my preparatory exercise regarding Nicomachean Ethics, I explored Aristotle's idea of happiness, and I find that I still need to work through the piece to understand Aristotle's conclusions about happiness. In terms of a definition, I was mostly able to gather only what Aristotle believes happiness is not. He says, "What constitutes happiness is a matter of dispute" and that "the popular account of it is not the same as given by philosophers" (11). This idea holds true today. People often say that happiness is different for everyone; different things make different people happy. As Aristotle observes, "ordinary people" associate happiness with "obvious and visible good, such as pleasure or wealth or honour," but often the same person says different things at different times, so Aristotle finds it troublesome that there is no stable answer (11). Aristotle finds it "vulgar" when people identify Good or happiness with pleasure, and he also does not believe that good and happiness is within honor because honor is too superficial to be good (15).

As I continued to read the piece, I began to feel that Aristotle's argument is severely incomplete. What does he actually believe is happiness? Am I missing something? Does anyone feel like he had a more definite answer? Perhaps not — we still struggle to define happiness today. I would have been more satisfied if Aristotle had been more clear with his conclusion, however.

Aristotle leaves us with even less hope in terms of happiness when he states that happiness is not within our control. "We wish to be happy, and that is the word we use in this connexion, but it would not be proper to say we choose to be happy since, speaking generally, choice seems to be concerned with things within our control" (131). I am thankful that Aristotle was clear in this respect. It makes it easier to comprehend and dispute. He presents a rather sinister view of happiness, and we tend to be more optimistic. Like Aristotle, I will make some generalizations as evidence for my point. We like to believe that we have at least a little control over our own happiness. If we seek that which is good and what we perceive will make us happy, we believe happiness can be achieved. However, we do concede that happiness cannot be guaranteed. Aristotle says that even if a man is virtuous, it does not guarantee his happiness. So I suppose Aristotle, though pessimistic, may be correct in suggesting that happiness is simply out of our control. We like to believe that we can strive for happiness, but in the end it is not guaranteed.

It is interesting that I was able to take some ideas away about happiness from this piece when I do not believe that happiness was well defined in the first place. This is because, lacking Aristotle's conclusion about happiness, I used my own definition. Truly, if anyone has ideas about Aristotle's view of happiness, please do share.