Ethics, happiness and virtue by Aristotle
This synthesis addresses the relationship between ethics and the concepts of happiness and virtue addressed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle in his work "Ethics to Nicómaco", a text written by Aristotle for his Nicómaco son.
Aristotle states that the objective of ethics is to achieve happiness and identifies it as the man’s own end. This philosopher considered that ethics and politics were closely linked, while ethics deals with the happiness of an individual. Politics is responsible for the happiness of a group of individuals. Aristotle concludes that ethics is a part of politics and that the happiness of the social group is more important than that of the individual. In addition, the happiness of man is always associated with the happiness of the community to which he belongs, remember that by nature man is a sociable being.
Aristotle believes that man must have a unique purpose. He also considers that man is a rational being;So happiness is defined by reason, this philosopher points out that "happiness is a certain activity of the soul according to virtue". (Cite p. 147). He also states that the way to achieve happiness is the search for a fair means between the extremes and recognizes that it is difficult to determine where this just medium is where the moral virtue is located and that it is often not the symmetrical point between the twoextremes.
The philosopher argues that in addition to some wealth, friendship must join the moral virtue to achieve happiness, says Aristotle: “[…] Without friends, no one would like to live, even if it had all the other goods;Even those who possess riches, authority or being able to seem mostly friends;Because what is the use of this abundance of goods without the opportunity to do good […]?”(ET. Nicom. P. 32,81155a).
The virtuous man is rational and as by nature man is a social being, also the good man will be a social being that will need the friendship of other equals to develop his virtues.
Ethics, as we have already pointed out, deals with how the individual can achieve virtue and happiness, but it is not something that the individual should only worry. To conclude Aristotle, he considers that by law and education, virtue must be instilled. It is not natural that man is good, man must learn to be good.
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