WHAT IS HAPPINESS?
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Transcript of WHAT IS HAPPINESS?
WHAT IS HAPPINESS?
What is happiness?Is there such thing as ‘happiness that is final in itself’? Why?
Every action is directed towards the good/end
BECAUSE: goal is worthwhile (GOOD)
all ends are final ends?
REAL HAPPINESS?:End that is never desirable for the sake of something else
HAPPINESS (TELEOLOGICAL)
HAPPINESS & ACTIVITY: goals are goods that are
achievable by?Action (ACTUALITY & POTENTIALITY).POTENTIALITY IS MANIFESTED IN ACTIVITY (ACTUALITY)
ULTIMATE HAPPINESS = ULTIMATE GOAL = ACHIEVABLE BY ONE FINAL ACTION
What is pleasant is in the activity
Activity done for the sake of the end
Where does good reside? Activity or in the end?
ACTIONS NOT DONE VERY WELL?
REGRETS & RESENTMENTS: RATIONAL SOUL IS NOT
CONTENTED
HUMAN TIME
EXCELLENT ACTION?
VIRTUOUS ACTION = RATIONAL (SOUL) =
HAPPINESS
IRRATIONAL = COMMON TO OTHER SPECIES
HAPPY MAN LIVES WELL & DOES WELL HAPPINESS IS A SHARED
ACTIVITY
MAKING THE BEST CIRCUMSTANCES :
CREATION OF POLIS
VIRTUES = anything that is related to the idea of goodness (something that is rational/ “excellent activity of the soul”)
1. INTELLECTUAL VIRTUES• PHILOSOPHICAL
• Acquired/ inherited• Education/ culture
• PRACTICAL• Application of judgment
2. MORAL VIRTUES: 3 kinds of soul HABITS: repeating actions
PASSIONS/ VEGETATIVE PLEASURE/PAIN
FACULTIES (Body) Senses
STATE OF CHARACTER: EXCESS, DEFICIENCY, MEAN MEAN: EXCELLENCE
MORAL VIRTUES = HABITS: PLEASURES & PAINS
1. Concerned with pleasures and pain (passion)
Pleasures: we do bad things
Pain: abstain from noble ones.
2. Acquired through “practice, imitation, and habit”(“ethike”)
3. Dictated by nature? E.g. stone Men become builders by
building We are adapted by nature to
receive them, and are made perfect by habit.
MORAL VIRTUES
1. Conditions in which we stand… well or badly with reference to the
passions2. State in which virtue resides.
Virtue = excellence Excellent = aiming at the
intermediate (disposition of virtue)
lying in a mean (DEFICIENCY, EXCESS, MEAN)
STATES OF CHARACTER (rational soul)
To feel pleasure and pain at: RIGHT = MEAN
1. the right time, 2. with reference to
the right object, 3. towards the right
people, 4. with the right
motive, 5. and in the right
way.
T-O-P-M-W= EXCELLENCE
1.Adultery2.Murder3.Theft4.Gluttony5.Cheating6.Rape
EVERY ACTION/ PASSION ADMITS OF A MEAN?
Some have names = imply badnessImpossibility =
negative meanings to be right.One must always be wrong.
Impossible to commit adultery:the right woman, at the right time, and in the right way.
NOT EVERY ACTION NOR EVERY PASSION ADMITS OF A MEAN
“THE ONLY PERMANENT THING IN THIS WORLD IS CHANGE (movement)…”
1. MATTER + FORM2. SUBSTANCE3. TELEOLOGICAL
HAPPINESS LOVE
4. CHANGE AND MOTION: ACTUALITY & POTENTIALITY
5. 4 CAUSES OF SUBSTANCES
EVERY ACTION IS DIRECTED TOWARDS THE GOAL/ END (TELEOLOGICAL) = MOTION?
Aristotle’s Substance:An object with both form and matter.FORM =
Function (peculiar to one/ not common with others)Function of man?
Rational principle (life that is in activity)MATTER =
Composition/ PropertiesIndividuationUniqueness
E.G.STUDENT:
Form: study Matter: study well with extraordinary strategies
GIRLFRIEND Form: company Matter: company (better/worst); “reciprocity = complete”
PARENT Direct Direct (understands); accepts
ARISTOTLE’S SUBSTANCE
ARISTOTLE’S ACTUALITY & POTENTIALITY
Acorn’s matter (uniqueness) contains the potentiality of becoming an oak tree.
Becoming an oak tree is the acorn’s actuality.
Each individual substance (form & matter) is a self-contained teleological (goal-oriented) system.
ARISTOTLE’S ACTUALITY & POTENTIALITY
a)MATERIAL CAUSEb)FORMAL CAUSEc)EFFICIENT CAUSEd)FINAL CAUSE
4 causes of all substances
a) MATERIAL CAUSE (objective) “Stuff” /OBJECT out of which something is
made E.g. chunk of marble that is to become a
statue.
STATUE
4 causes of all substances
b) Formal Cause (Subjective)
This exists both in the mind of the artist (subject)
Potentially in the marble (object) itself.
?
c) Efficient Cause (action itself)
Force = change is possible
What is the “efficient cause” in this picture?
d) Final Cause
Ultimate purpose of the object.
End product
MORAL VIRTUES: 3 kinds of soul
HABITS: repeating actions PASSIONS
(DISCONTENTMENT:) PLEASURE/PAIN
FACULTIES (Body) Senses (DESIRE MORE) EXPRECT MORE:
DISAPPOINTEMENT STATE OF CHARACTER:
EXCESS, DEFICIENCY, MEAN MEAN: EXCELLENCE
HAPPINESS THAT IS FINAL IN ITSELF