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Discussion question 5
“Happiness is believed to be the most desirable thing in the world, and that not merely as one among other things” (Aristotle 114).
Happiness is the only thing that is self-sufficient because people do not want happiness for the sake of other things. Eudaimonia, or happiness based on Aristotle’s insight is not a feeling of joy or a sense of contentment, but a life well lived. Happiness is the pursuit of virtues or excellence which is the ultimate good of humans (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 118). However, not all people take happiness as their ultimate purpose even if it might involve acting against their natural instincts. As a matter of fact, most of the people take happiness as specific personal goals, such as pleasure, wealth, health, fame, or love (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 118). Some people think those things could make them happy because they could buy things they want and get respect from the society. However, those things are individual goods that could only bring people short-term satisfaction instead of long-term well-beings. Thus they could not be counted as happiness. Namely, those people who pursue those specific personal goals will not get happiness as the real happinessjava代写
It is wrong to say being “happy as a clam” as animals do not have the ability to achieve happiness. Thus they cannot feel happy. People do not say animals as happy or not because they do not have the ability to reason. Humans are the only species that can reason and thus achieve excellence or virtue. The unique ability of reason also serves the ultimate function of humans, which is to live purposefully (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 111). Animals are guided by their natural instincts without conscious minds like humans. Thus, they could never experience or gain happiness as men, as animals and plants can only live, but never live purposefully.c++代写
Wealth and honors as material and social goods might not be counted as happiness, but they are considered as necessary conditions for happiness. According to Aristotle, wealth and honors are the external goods that are essential for people to achieve happiness (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 111). For example, wealth could bring some forms of goods such as satisfaction, and it is a necessary留学生代考
condition to provide the basic needs for people to survive. When people do not have the wealth to meet their basic needs for survival, it is impossible for them to achieve the ultimate happiness. As to honors from others, people also need parents, friends, children, and spouses in their life as a company and as assistants to pursue happiness. People as social animals do not live in solitude in the society. They need to interact with others constantly. Social relations allow people to have the support and encouragement they might need to achieve happiness.python代写
10.
“By the excellence of man I mean excellence not of the body, but of the soul; for happiness, we take to be an activity of the soul” (Aristotle 120).英国exam代考
Virtue and Excellence are a matter of cultivated habits when people acts based on reason (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 130). Based on Aristotle’s insights, virtues or excellence is not about the human body, but about the human soul. Aristotle divides human soul into two parts, the irrational part and the rational part (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 111). The irrational part of the soul is what humans have together with other living things. The rational part of the soul is unique to humans as humans are the only species that has the ability to reason. The rational part of the soul allows people to distinguish the rational thing to do and fight against the impulses derived from the irrational part of the soul. Then, virtues indeed mean the action people take guided by rational principles instead of irrational ones.
In the modern world, the concept of virtues has changed much since Aristotle. The moral virtues Aristotle has suggested are different from the intellectual excellence that could be gained from birth. Moral virtues are the results of habits that developed later in humans’ life. Virtue is about having the right amount of things, a kind of moderation as a result of cultivated habits (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 124). The right amount of honesty, courage, generosity, and empathy can be considered as virtues, but any amount of envy, hatred, and theft is not. In the modern world, people have a more open mind towards virtues. People consider doing good deeds in certain situations as virtues, such as generosity. When people spend their income on doing charity to help those indeed, they are considered as virtuous people. In this case, modern virtues concern more on the good deeds people do in particular situations, rather than living a virtuous life.R语言作业代写
The virtuous person Aristotle claims is the one who consciously chooses to do good deeds for its own sake and enjoys doing them consistently (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 124). That it to say, the virtuous person in Aristotle’s eye will always act in a virtuous way as it has been internalized into his soul and cultivated as habits. Virtuous people would never do non-virtuous things of any kind. Different, modern day virtuous people are those who can do some virtuous actions, but it is still possible that they might lack other virtues. Modern day virtues like generosity, courage, empathy could be separated, but Aristotle’s virtues are united in virtuous people. Overall, modern day virtues are more tolerant than Aristotle’s virtues.
11.
“For the manifestations of excellence are naturally pleasant, so they are both pleasant to them and pleasant in themselves” (Aristotle, 116).
The life of pleasure is not necessary the good life because people might find all kinds of things as pleasant. Pleasure is the temporary satisfaction people experience when they have external goods such as wealth and fame or enjoy doing things they like. People take pleasures in things they enjoy, like sight-seeing, reading, and painting. Different people take different things as pleasant based on their personal interests, but these things are not naturally pleasant in themselves. Some of them are even conflicting with each other. For example, some people might take substance use as pleasure as it can bring them the short term ecstasy. However, substance use can also be addictive that would threaten the long-term well-being of people.
Accordingly, to Aristotle, the manifestation of virtues or excellence is the only thing that is naturally pleasant. It is not only pleasant in doing so, but also contains pleasure in itself.
The good life is inconceivable without pleasure because a good life is when people do good deeds and takes pleasures in his action. Excellence and virtues are things pleasant in themselves. Thus, people will feel pleasant when they are doing virtuous things and exercising excellence. That is to say; pleasure is an integral part of a good life. Although people might take up challenges in overcoming their impulses and instincts when they are trying to do the good deeds, they can still find pleasure when they know they are doing the rights thing to achieve excellence. A good life as Aristotle claims refers to the long-term well-being of people, so they should focus on the long-term effects instead of the current difficulties.
Pleasure might not necessary leads to a good life, but a good life must involve pleasure. It depends on what things people find pleasures in. Only those who find pleasure in doing good deeds can be considered as a good life. As Aristotle has pointed out that the function of people is to reason, thus whether life is good or not is determined by how reason is exercised or fulfilled. The process of reasoning guides people to make the right choices and do good deeds for the long-term well- being of people instead of focusing on the short-term pleasure. People might choose to quit smoking for their health even they take smoking as one pleasant thing to do. Such action as quitting the bad habits allows people to enjoy the long-term well-being. Thus it is indeed a naturally pleasant thing to do. In Aristotle’s ethics, pleasure is a precondition for a good life, and what matters is how the pleasure is gained and what it is for. Only those pleasures gained in doing the naturally pleasant things such as virtues can be counted as meaningful for the good life.
“Study Questions” #2
“The function of man, then, is exercise of his vital faculties on one side in obedience to reason, and on the other side with reason” (Aristotle 114).顶级英文论文代写
A good life is necessarily a rational life as ration is what people need to achieve happiness and how a good life is measured. Reason is the unique function of humans as it is what distinguishes humans from other living things such as animals and plants (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 111). As Aristotle suggests, a rational life would require people to make certain challenges and use human reason to make the right choice that is best for everyone. Excellency is closely related to function (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 111). A knife is considered as good as it excels in cutting. A good life must be a well-lived life when people use reason to do rational activities and make rational choices because reason is the function of humans. Humans are not born to live as other living things because they serve the function to reason. Thus reason is used to measure whether a person has achieved his function and thus to live a good life.
Reason here means the rational thinking ability that people have when deciding which path to take in those challenging moment. As Aristotle has suggested, human souls have two parts, the rational parts, and the irrational part. The rational part is what separates humans with other living things as they share the irrational part of the soul. The irrational part is guided by natural instincts when the rational part is to fight against those natural instincts and to make the right choice.
If an activity is guided by human reason, it is a rational activity. Those activities that are guided by the irrational part of the soul such as desires and appetites are not rational activities as rational activities are results of rational thinking.
Virtues are rational because virtues are results of reason. Virtue is a kind of moderation as a result of cultivated habits (Soloman, Martin, and Vaught 124). Moderation here means having the right amount of things, not too much and not too less. Thus virtues can only be achieved when reason is internalized in the soul to guide all the human activities. The irrational part of the soul might want as much as possible, but the rational part of the soul can control the desire to the moderate amount that is best for the long-term well-being of people. Thus, virtues are results of cultivated habits when people can act based on the principle of reason consistently in all kinds of activities and thus live a virtuous life.
Work Cited
Soloman, Robert, Clancy Martin, and Wayne Vaught. Morality and the Good Life: An Introduction to Ethics through Classical Sources. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages, 2009.
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