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Single Idea 5132

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / c. Value of happiness ]

Full Idea

Happiness more than anything else is thought to be a final end without qualification, because we always choose it for itself, and not for any other reason. Pleasure, intelligence and good qualities generally we choose partly for the sake of our happiness.

Gist of Idea

Goods like pleasure are chosen partly for happiness, but happiness is chosen just for itself

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1097a32)

Book Ref

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.73

A Reaction

The obvious reply is that happiness might be chosen because it gives us pleasure. Imagine if a sense of happiness resulted in an instant feeling of guilt. If we could ONLY have intelligence, we would choose that just for itself.

The 14 ideas with the same theme [how important is happiness?]:

2681 Aristotle is unsure about eudaimonia because he is unsure what people are [Nagel on Aristotle]
5132 Goods like pleasure are chosen partly for happiness, but happiness is chosen just for itself [Aristotle]
30 Happiness is perfect and self-sufficient, the end of all action [Aristotle]
14522 What happens to me if I obtain all my desires, and what if I fail? [Epicurus]
22985 Everyone wants happiness [Augustine]
6210 Life has no end (not even happiness), because we have desires, which presuppose a further end [Hobbes]
1386 A concern for happiness is the inevitable result of consciousness [Locke]
1454 Morality is not about making ourselves happy, but about being worthy of happiness [Kant]
21061 Duty does not aim at an end, but gives rise to universal happiness as aim of the will [Kant]
2891 Only the English actually strive after happiness [Nietzsche]
4500 It is a sign of degeneration when eudaimonistic values begin to prevail [Nietzsche]
4558 We have no more right to 'happiness' than worms [Nietzsche]
18307 I want my work, not happiness! [Nietzsche]
7983 Good versus evil has been banefully reduced to happiness versus misfortune [Baudrillard]