The Oxford American Dictionary defines happiness as the “feeling or showing pleasure or contentment” (Ehrlich, 397). Many people would consider this the proper way to define happiness. Aristotle would say that you were a fool. Happiness, according to Artistotle, is “the complete end, the only one that does not promote any other end” (Irwin,333). It is a complex thing, not only one thing that has made you happy. It is a life-long process. He believed that in order for a person to be truly happy, they have to live “the good life” and that happiness should be the ultimate goal in any human life.
Aristotle considers three different lives in determining what the good life consist of. The first argument is a life of gratification. Although it may seem like happiness to most people, in his eyes, it is not. Money, pleasure, and goods can make you happy, but are not necessary for happiness since it could be easily stripped from you. Aristotle says that the happy man wants for nothing, meaning that he has everything he needs. Wealth is not the good we are seeking since wealth itself does nothing unless this wealth is used in a certain way to bring about the feeling of happiness. Happiness is an end in itself. You can not just be wealthy and happy. He believed that people who consider the life of pleasure the good life had a flawed view of happiness and were not raised correctly. In order to live this life, you must have been brought up with strong moral beliefs and if you lack these, your parents failed you.
The second argument is a life of political activity or living honorably. He dismisses this idea because he claims that honor is what people ...