more from Alasdair MacIntyre

Single Idea 8005

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / b. Eudaimonia]

Full Idea

The name 'eudaimonia' is badly but inevitably translated by 'happiness', badly because it includes both the notion of behaving well and the notion of faring well.

Gist of Idea

'Happiness' is a bad translation of 'eudaimonia', which includes both behaving and faring well

Source

Alasdair MacIntyre (A Short History of Ethics [1967], Ch. 7)

Book Reference

MacIntyre,Alasdair: 'A Short History of Ethics' [Routledge 1967], p.59


A Reaction

This seems to imply that it does not include the notion of feeling good. Aristotle, however, concludes that pleasure is part of eudaimonia. I take our 'happiness' to be an internal notion, while the Greek word is an external notion.