Single Idea 5850

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness]

Full Idea

The elements of happiness are: gentle birth, many virtuous friends, wealth, creditable and extensive offspring, a comfortable old age; also health, beauty, strength, size and competitiveness, reputation, status, luck and the virtues.

Gist of Idea

Happiness is composed of a catalogue of internal and external benefits

Source

Aristotle (The Art of Rhetoric [c.350 BCE], 1360b)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'The Art of Rhetoric', ed/tr. Lawson-Tancred,H.C. [Penguin 1991], p.87


A Reaction

This is Aristotle's pluralism, and his commitment to 'external goods' (rather than the inner good of pure virtue, which the Stoics preferred). 'Gentle birth' might turn out to mean good upbringing and education. Who was the most 'beautiful' philosopher?