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Full Idea
'What will be gained by a man who is good?' 'That is easy - he will be happy'.
Clarification
'Happy' is the Greek word 'eudaimon', also sometimes translated as 'flourishing'
Gist of Idea
If a person is good they will automatically become happy
Source
Plato (The Symposium [c.384 BCE], 205a)
Book Ref
Plato: 'The Symposium', ed/tr. Hamilton,W [Penguin 1951], p.84
A Reaction
Suppose you tried to assassinate Hitler in 1944 (a good deed), but failed. Happiness presumably results from success, rather than mere good intentions.
| 177 | If a person is good they will automatically become happy [Plato] |
| 5972 | Living happily is nothing but living virtuously [Chrysippus, by Plutarch] |
| 2903 | A good human will be virtuous because they are happy [Nietzsche] |
| 5938 | Virtue is superior to pleasure, as pleasure is never a duty, but goodness is [Ross] |
| 5121 | Basing ethics on flourishing makes it consequentialist, as actions are judged by contributing to it [Harman] |
| 4358 | Virtue may be neither sufficient nor necessary for eudaimonia [Hursthouse] |