Single Idea 38

[catalogued under 23. Ethics / C. Virtue Theory / 4. External Goods / a. External goods]

Full Idea

A man is scarcely happy if he is very ugly to look at, or of low birth, or solitary and childless.

Clarification

'Happy' is the Greek word 'eudaimon', also sometimes translated as 'flourishing'

Gist of Idea

A man can't be happy if he is ugly, or of low birth, or alone and childless

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1099b03)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.80


A Reaction

This seems a bit shocking for us, when none of these setbacks is the person's fault. Socrates was said to be ugly, and Plato seems to have had no children.