Western Ethics and the Pursuit of Happiness
Ethical Happiness and Justice
The Pursuit of Happiness
We consider happiness to be the ultimate goal. Various philosophical viewpoints offer different paths to achieve it. Some argue that performing good deeds brings happiness. Teleological ethics define good as happiness itself.
- Naturalist: Believes happiness is derived from pleasure.
- Eudaemonist: Aristotle argues that wisdom is the key to happiness.
Ethics of Justice
Ethics of justice focuses on doing what is right and just. These ethical theories emphasize fulfilling one’s duty, following the dictates of moral conscience. Key figures include Kant, Apel, and Habermas.
The Origins of Western Ethics
The moral world depicted in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey rests on three pillars:
- Good: Actions that benefit the community.
- Virtue: Excellence and ability, conferring power upon those who possess it.
- The Good Person: Excels in serving the community and is therefore considered the best.
This concept of moral goodness as striving to better serve the community persists today, reflected in community movements.
The Many Paths to Happiness
Three Models of Happiness
The pursuit of happiness was central to ancient Greek philosophy. Three enduring answers emerged:
- Happiness is self-realization: achieving one’s goals.
- Happiness is self-sufficiency: being independent and self-reliant.
- Happiness is experiencing pleasure and avoiding pain.
Aristotle believed happiness was achieving full human potential. Epicurus believed pleasure motivates human action, thus happiness is its attainment. Hedonists equate happiness with pleasure, while eudaemonists link it to self-realization.
Happiness as Self-Realization: Eudaemonism
Aristotle viewed happiness as the ultimate natural end. He argued all activities aim towards a final purpose: happiness (eudaimonia, meaning “good-spirited”).
Happiness is:
- A perfect end, sought for itself, not as a means to another end.
- Sufficient in itself, leaving nothing else to be desired.
- Achieved through the exercise of humanity’s most characteristic activity: virtue.
- Achieved through continuous activity.
Living a Life of Theoretical and Practical Wisdom
Each person plays a role in society, developing virtues to fulfill it. However, humanity’s specific function is to exercise virtue, leading to the most perfect form of happiness. Actions with intrinsic value are superior to those serving external ends. Aristotle believed nothing surpasses happiness. He felt that engaging in our deepest intuitions is where true happiness lies. Thus, we are happy when we fulfill our human potential, developing our reason. The wise person is therefore the happiest.
Contemplating truth is the most fulfilling theoretical activity, but not everyone can lead a contemplative life. In practical life, happiness comes from letting reason guide decisions, living virtuously. Virtue is the midpoint between excess and deficiency. Happiness is found in balance (e.g., between greed (-) and prodigality (+)). Prudence, a dianoetic virtue, helps us find this balance.
Happiness as Self-Sufficiency
Philosophical history can be divided into three periods:
- Pre-Socratic philosophy.
- The era of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.
- Post-Aristotelian philosophy.
Cynics, Epicureans, and Stoics sought to define what makes humans happy, formulating an ideal of wisdom: wisdom is knowing how to be happy. They believed the wise person is self-sufficient, thus happiness lies in self-sufficiency, though they interpreted it differently.
Happiness as Pleasure: Hedonism
Hedonists believe morality arises from the human pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain. Since pleasures and pains differ, intelligence is used to calculate the best means to maximize pleasure. Morality, then, becomes a calculating intellect.