Single Idea 30

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

Full Idea

Happiness is found to be something perfect and self-sufficient, being the end to which our actions are directed.

Clarification

'Happiness' is the Greek word 'eudaimonia', also sometimes translated as 'flourishing'

Gist of Idea

Happiness is perfect and self-sufficient, the end of all action

Source

Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics [c.334 BCE], 1097b21)

Book Reference

Aristotle: 'Ethics (Nicomachean)', ed/tr. ThomsonJ A K/TredennickH [Penguin 1976], p.74


A Reaction

This will be eudaimonia, so while this sounds like an announcement of the secret of life, eudaimonia is only really a placeholder for things going very well, in some way or other.