Charles Robbins
Professor: Mark Gobeo
PHI. 2010
December 2, 2014
Views on Happiness What exactly is happiness? The meaning of truly being happy in my opinion can be of the now and what makes people’s lives whole. I will prove, that in today’s time, people can feel happy at any moment of their lives. There are factors, such as: The birth of a baby, winning a lot of money, and any other moment in life, that can cause a person to feel happy at any moment. A person, can feel or be happy without materialistic items, and to prove this I will show what people really claim to cause them to feel happy. Aristotle’s mostly influential work is the Nichomachean Ethics, where he presents a theory of happiness. Aristotle viewed happiness as a means to the end; however in today’s time, happiness is viewed all throughout a person’s life and in daily life activities. Happiness, as defined by Aristotle as: The function of man to live a certain kind of life, and this activity implies a rational principle, and the function of a good man is the good and noble performance if these, and if any action is well performed it is performed in accord with the appropriate excellence: (Citation). If this is the case, then happiness turns out to be an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue (Nicomachean Ethics, 1098a13). Aristotle’s views on happiness, though in a different time period, states that happiness is seen as an end after a person has already lived his/her life.

Happiness, is defined as: according to the Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, as “the state of being happy, pleasure, joy, exhilaration, bliss, aspects, seem relative today” (Merriam-Webster). According to Aristotle, “One swallow, doesn’t make a Summer, neither does one fine day; similarly one day or brief time of happiness doesn’t