Concept of Happiness 1

Concept of Happiness

Roanne Marie Gacusan

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Introduction

Being happy is hard to achieve. Many concepts of happiness have been made to guide

people to be happy or to give people a grasp of happiness. One would be Aristotle’s concept of

eudaimonia (happiness) in his Nicomachean Ethics. He argues that happiness depends on

activity, and the activities are based on virtue. Another concept would be the modern concept of

happiness, where happiness is a “state or mood of the consciousness” and is not based on

activities.(Eagleton,146) The position of this paper will be with Aristotle’s concept of

happiness. Happiness is achieved through activity and does not just come to people and

become a mood. There is always an external factor that affects the mood of people that is

why, even if happiness is just a mood, it is also affected by activities. This paper will be

comparing the two concepts of happiness.

Aristotle’s Concept of Happiness

In general, Aristotle’s concept of happiness circles around activities. The concept of

selection, the activities based on the best virtue, and collection, the collection of all activities is a

problem in Aristotle’s concept. (Pakaluk, 316) An argument of Aristotle also discusses that

happiness is achieved from the activities of virtue. This is the main idea of his concept of

happiness. This means that happiness is only achieved if an individual accomplished his or her

activities, according to his or her standards. These standards come along with virtue.

It can be seen that happiness is achieved by the way of life. This is what Aristotle

proposes. The problem here is that, once the standards are broken, or become inappropriate in a

time or place, the happiness stops. For example, if an individual’s standard of activities is

appropriate for a democratic country, once the country enters war, it will not be appropriate

anymore. This will stop the happiness of the individual. However, because it is the individual’s
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virtue, he or she will continue on doing such activities because that is where his happiness

depends.

The Modern Concept of Happiness

This concept suggests that happiness is just a mood of the conscious mind. It is not based

on the way of life a man follows. Here, happiness is something that one believes to exist in his or

her mind. If a man believes he is happy, then he is happy. Also, the modern concept of happiness

dejects the fact that happiness is based on activities. This is because, if happiness was to be based

on something, then if that thing is taken away, then happiness will also be gone. For example, if

an athlete, who really loves being an athlete, becomes paralyzed, then he would not be happy.

And he can only gain happiness from self-contentment where he should believe that all is well.

Therefore, this type of happiness is only based on what one believes.

Happiness, as a state of the consciousness, means that it can be easily taken away. Many

external things affect the emotions of individuals. If a man has an officemate that spills his

coffee every day, even if they were just accidents, he will be angry. Here, if one believes that he

is happy, then the cause of his happiness will be his belief. But because there are many other

external things that can cause a change of emotion, then happiness is not permanent.

The power here comes from the way an individual thinks. If an individual have a

harmonious mind, then the mind does not categorize any external things, thus, making the factors

either positive or negative. But if the mind were trained to receive such factors in a positive way,

then happiness is preserved.

Comparison between the Two

In the Aristotle’s concept, happiness will be based on activities. While in the modern

concept, happiness is based on beliefs. This shows that the modern concept has more
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weaknesses. A belief can easily be swayed by some external thing. While for Aristotle’s concept,

one can only stop in being happy if he or she dies. For example, even if someone becomes

paralyzed, he or she can still think. Thinking is the base of all activities. Without thinking, no

one can even establish a standard for activities. And once the standards are established,

everything else becomes easier. Happiness is longer and easier to achieve when it is based on the

way of life.

For the modern concept, it’s weak because many things can affect the mood of a person.

The base is so unstable that it can easily be swayed. There are so many external factors that

affect the life of individuals. These factors are then processed in the mind according to the biases

of the mind. And after that, the product can be an action and an emotion. Different factors bring

different results. Then if one only believes that he is happy, if something against his bias comes

across, then his happiness will be gone. If the interest of the individual is not attained, then the

mood becomes less possible.

This makes Aristotle’s concept of happiness to be more powerful. Even perfect

happiness, if it exists, can be achieved as what Michael Pakaluk claims in the book Aristotle's

Nicomachean Ethics: An Introduction.

Conclusion

Both concepts of happiness can be used if the other is not possible. This is just to stay

happy. Being happy brings all other kinds of positive things to one’s life. An example would be,

if a man is happy, he sees things in the positive way. Being happy also helps people become

emotionally stable. The only question is how can people be happy? In this case, Aristotle’s

concept of happiness is more powerful. It does not only give happiness but can also give people a

grasp of perfect happiness.

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Works Cited

Eagleton, T. The Meaning of Life. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.

Pakaluk, M. Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics: An introduction. New York: Cambridge University

Press, 2005.