Divine And Superior Activity example essay topic
Aristotle describes happiness as being a final end meaning that is not chosen as a means to something else. For example, people often associate wealth with happiness, but this cannot be for wealth is nothing in itself. It is always used to get something or somewhere else. Happiness is the "activity of the psyche exhibiting excellence, in accordance with the best and most complete' (1098 a 15). It is the goodness of a person's soul or psyche, such as health is the goodness of a person's body. Therefore, someone should not seek happiness but rather seek deserving to be happy; just as one would not seek to be healthy, but instead seek to deserve that health by taking care of themselves.
The Greek word eudoimonia includes both the notion of behaving well and the notion of faring well (being a good person and doing well in life). We have a tendency to identify goodness with inner features of a person's life, and happiness with outer features of a person's life. The amount of happiness we experience in our lives depends on the substance and importance of activities performed on a daily basis. But how can we distinguish which activities are superior and will bring the most happiness? Activities involving nutrition and growth are shared with plants and animals and activities involving sensory experiences or pleasure are shared with many animals.
Our powers to exercise reason and intelligence are what separate us from all other living things. We must perform these uniquely human functions with excellence and skill. Aristotle believed that our rational soul gave us the ability to perform such activities. Therefore, according to Aristotle, the function of human beings is to live a life filled with activities that require the exercise of our reason or intelligence. And a happy life will be one that such activities are performed well– allowing for the person to reach their own specific human potential.
Happiness is something that all humans strive to attain and once we have exercised the most important and highest of these excellences, it can finally be attained as the chief good. Like Socrates, Aristotle believed that the most pleasant life was that of the philosopher. The philosopher was one to quest endlessly after knowledge for no other sake but that of the knowledge itself. Aristotle reinforces this idea of superiority by saying that activities done for the sake of the activities themselves are much more valuable than those that are done as a means to something else.
Like the philosopher, a person wishing to attain true happiness must first learn how to use his unique human gift of intellectual thought to its greatest extent. A way of doing this would be to perform the activity of studying. A person who studies for the love of gaining priceless knowledge is following in the footsteps of the philosopher and will live the most pleasant life. There are two types of human virtues and they are virtue of thought and virtue of character. Virtue of character comes from the tendencies we have acquired to respond to certain situations in different ways.
These responses soon become habitual and we then tend to respond to things in a patterned way. Our psyches decide the correct way to act in any situation that requires a choice to be made. After some time and experience, we begin to develop our own rules that dictate how we respond to choices made by allowing us to classify new situations from what we have learned from past ones. This virtue of character is also known as practical wisdom. A person with practical wisdom has had substantial life experience from which they are able to judge and give advice on any particular situation. Aristotle believes that many practical wisdom skills require development and teaching from others during the more fulfilling social meetings.
Much of what is learned is learned from other people and / or circumstances occurring in the surrounding environment. We acquire the skills by performing the actions, but they don't truly become skills until the actions are found to be pleasurable. Virtue of intellect (or thought) is concerned with the scientific and calculative information a person can achieve. This practical wisdom is what gives human the knowledge needed to know how to achieve the ability to reach complete happiness. The highest intellectual intelligence is Sophia or the knowledge of the natural world. In order to reach Sophia, you must be able to grasp the first basic principles.
These principles are what things really are in contrast to what they appear to be. One should be able to explain this aspect while demonstrating the eternal truths. This formal cause of happiness is valued over the other because the highest sort of activity is knowing the best aspects of the world which comes only through philosophical knowledge. Aristotle believes that the life of contemplation is the most superior way of life for humans. If an activity is not done for its own sake, then the activity becomes inferior. The activity of study is never done for a means to something else, but rather for the pure enjoyment of knowledge and wisdom.
"Complete happiness will be its activity expressing its proper virtue; and we have said that this activity is the activity of study' (1177 a 16). This activity is portrayed as being divine and superior activity. By contemplating the heavens, we are actually contemplating the gods and therefore, are taking part in their immortality. Humans enrich their own lives by identifying with and participating in the lives of others. Pleasure is something that every human wants to experience and is often related to how happy we are. Aristotle believes that the activity of expressing wisdom is the most pleasant.
"Those who have knowledge [tend] to spend their lives more pleasantly than those who seek it' (1177 a 26). Another aspect of true happiness comes from self-sufficiency. The self-sufficiency of study is extremely high because although a person my benefit from studying with others, it is definitely possible for someone to gain knowledge and understanding on their own. It is this understanding that is the superior excellence because understanding is gained through studying which "aims at no end beyond itself and has its own proper pleasure Further, self sufficiency, leisure, unwearied activity' are features of this activity (1177 b 20). This life is considered to be superior to any other on the human level because understanding is something that is divine, or god-like. "If understanding is something divine in comparison with a human being, so also will be the life that expresses understanding be divine in comparison with human life' (1177 b 30).