李曉潔

（西南林業(yè)大學(xué)外國(guó)語學(xué)院 云南 昆明 650224）

“What is happiness?” and “How to obtain it?” are everlasting questions that philosophers have been inquiring for thousands of years.Aristotle has been one of them and he has made the most profound and systematic account about the issue.Rooted in nourishing humanism of Greek world,and based on rich theories about happiness by philosophers of Greek time,Aristotle has set up a comparatively complete theory of Happiness.Aristotle’s Happiness theory not only makes a considerable impact on the relative beliefs in the Middle Ages and modern western world,but also influences greatly on today’s society.

In the whole tradition of Western literature and learning,one book more than any other defines the happiness problem for us and helps us to think about it.That book of course is Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics,written in the fourth century before Christ.

The Nichomachean Ethics is divided into ten parts.In this paper,the first part in which Aristotle elaborates happiness will be discussed and the question raised by Aristotle of how a person can lead a happy life will also be examined.

The central topic of the Nichomachean Ethics is“eudaimonia”,a Greek word that is traditionally translated as “happiness”(P145).Aristotle’s conception of happiness is elaborated in it.He looks happiness in a more practical way than an ideal way,as he defines happiness with “activity of the soul deriving from virtue (human excellence),and if there is more than one virtue,from the best and most final(or endlike)of them”(P45).For Aristotle the soul is the form or actual functioning of living things.Virtue is then the moral excellence obtained through habitual acts and intellectual excellence obtained through experience and learning.As the definition shows,in Aristotle’s usage the word “happiness” is used most fundamentally as the name of a certain activity,something that human beings under ideal conditions can engage in.By engaging in that activity,a life can become a “happy” one.So the term “happiness” does not mean a good life or the condition of the life,but refers to the activity about the way how a life is led in order to make life “happy”.

According to Aristotle,individuals seek to live life in three different ways:seeking sensual pleasure,a life filled with politics,or the contemplative life.For Aristotle,the contemplative lifestyle is the best way to live.To contemplate is to reflect on one’s actions,and only in this way a person can make his life better.Aristotle explains that many people in politics associate happiness with honor,but honor is something that an individual can only attain if others praise him.Happiness cannot be something that is merely praised by others because if so it can be easily taken away.A happy man is one who is striving for a prize and in search of a good life.In addition,virtue cannot be all that people within the realm of politics seek,because“possession of virtue seems actually compatible with being asleep or with lifelong activity”(P313).By this Aristotle refers to intellectual virtue,which means a man with a great deal of knowledge may or may not attain happiness.

Aristotle is careful to separate intellectual virtue from moral virtue,and place the latter on a higher position.Intellectual virtue is learned or experienced through teaching or craft.However,moral virtue is accomplished through habituation.A morally virtuous man finds pleasure in doing good acts,and actually does them.Intellectual virtue only allows a man to think about good actions to analyze the world,and it is impossible that he would actually commit to a moral path of action.A man always in pursuit of honor would try to achieve honor at all costs,which would only lead to misery and further disappointment.Such a man is not seeking his own happiness,but hoping others to view him as an honorable leader.This view is not only superficial but it places the person who is seeking it in the control of others.Aristotle then explains why wealth is not a form of happiness.A rich person who works hard to accumulate wealth is not in search of just money,but does it to obtain happiness.

In addition to virtue,Aristotle also gives weight to external goods,which he believes can also affect our ability to achieve happiness.Aristotle says,“Yet evidently,as we said,happiness needs the external goods as well;for it is impossible…… to do noble acts without the equipment.There are some things that the lack of which takes away the luster of happiness,as good birth,goodly children,beauty.”(P322)He then uses an example of making friends to show us that people without external beauty can be avoided by people around them,and may have more trouble attaining friendships.Misfortunes and luck are cruel to man,but man cannot predict them.What man can do is to point life towards a certain direction,and if a man points his life towards the good,happiness will follow.

After defining what happiness is,Aristotle asks a very interesting question——how we can attain it.He asks if happiness is not temporary,then can only a dead man be happy.Going from this,if a dead man affects his ancestors’well being,through his actions,can a dead man’s happiness be left up on the air also?(P189)Aristotle answers this question by analyzing the very thing that makes a man happy,virtue.Since a virtuous man who contemplates his life correctly makes reasonable decisions,a virtuous man can be called happy while he is still living because virtuous people will not make decisions contrary to the good.Therefore,a virtuous person who always performs good actions with some external goods is happy,even on this world and the happy man is also happy when he passes away because he is ultimately good.For Aristotle,it is more important for a person to do something because it is the noble thing than to participate in an action because “you have to do it”(P371).However,virtue is not enough for happiness,Aristotle states,“Everyone thinks that the happy life is pleasant,and weaves pleasure into happiness,and this is reasonable;for no activity is complete which is hindered,and happiness is complete.Hence a happy person has the need of the goods of the body and external goods and luck,so as not to be impeded in these ways.Those who assert that the person broken on the wheel and falling into great misfortunes is happy,if only he is good,are willingly and unwillingly,talking nonsense.” (P143)By saying this,Aristotle again accounts for the need of external goods and luck in obtaining happiness.This also shows that even when a virtuous person seeks virtue for his own sake,he can be happy.A virtuous person is not able to attain happiness on virtue alone,but he or she needs the external goods and luck.

To Aristotle,happiness consists in the possession of what matters most and this possession is in the agent’s control(P365).In today’s society,some people make happiness dependent on external goods,luck,and what is not solely in the agent’s control.Although Aristotle disputes the claims that put a lot of emphasis on external goods or achievements,he admits they are necessary factors to actualize happiness.A virtuous person has to get an adequate amount of external goods to realize his happy life.In modern society,happiness is reduced to mere contentment.The soul is confused with force or spirit.Reading Aristotle may help one understand that to lead a happy life one needs to be virtuous and also should get some necessary external goods.What’s equally important,the soul is what makes us who we are and we shall never lose it.

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［2］John M.Cooper.The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy,ed[M].David Sedley， Cambridge University Press,2003.

［3］Mckeon,Richard.Introduction to Aristotle[J].New York:McGraw-Hill inc,1947.

［4］Solomon,Robert.Is There Happiness After Death[J].Philosophy 51,Apr.1976.

［5］Wiles,Ann.Method in the Nichomachean Ethics[J].New Scholar 56,1992.

［6］Richard Kraut. “Aristotle’s Ethics”,Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy July17,2007.On-line.Available@.http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/[OL].

［7］Mortimer J.Adler. “Aristotle’s Ethics:The Theory of Happiness”,The Radical Academy December 9,2008.Available@http://www.radicalacademy.com/adleraristotleethics1.htm[OL].［8］Aristotle,Nicomachean Ethics,ed.H.Rackham.On-line.Available from Perseus Encyclopedia@http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0054&query=[OL].

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【Notes】

①John M.Cooper.The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Philosophy,ed [M].David Sedley,Cambridge University Press,2003： 145.

②Ibid：145.

③Mckeon,Richard.Introduction to Aristotle[J].New York:Mc-Graw-Hill inc,1947：313.

④Ibid：322.

⑤Solomon,Robert.Is There Happiness After Death[J].Philosophy， 51Apr,1976:189.

⑥Annas,Julia.The Morality of Happiness[M].New York:Oxford University Press,1993：371.

⑦Wiles,Ann.Method in the Nichomachean Ethics[M].New Scholar 56,1992:143.

⑧Annas,Julia.The Morality of Happiness[M].New York:Oxford University Press,1993：365.