back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 5865

[from 'Eudemian Ethics' by Aristotle, in 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 2. Happiness / d. Routes to happiness ]

Full Idea

To be happy, and to live the fine and divinely-happy life, would seem to reside in three things above all, ..for some say that wisdom is the greatest good, others virtue, others pleasure.

Gist of Idea

Happiness involves three things, of which the greatest is either wisdom, virtue, or pleasure

Source

Aristotle (Eudemian Ethics [c.333 BCE], 1214a30)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Eudemian Ethics I,II and VIII', ed/tr. Woods,Michael [OUP 1992], p.2


A Reaction

Aristotle is well-known for his pluralist answer to this question: virtue is crucial, wisdom is perhaps the greatest of the virtues, and pleasure improves everything in life.