On Aristotle's Concept Of Happiness

Eudaimonia is the object of practical philosophy’s research. As the object of philosophy’s study,Eudaimonia is a kind of act. The study of eudaimonia is based on the scientific research on human beings’ activities. And the purpose of Aristotle’s study on Endaimonia is for citizens’s and polis’s happiness. There are four parts in my understanding on the Aristotle’s eudaimonia. Firstly happiness is the good in the sense of theory, the highest good, which is the final goal of other goods:The other goods is the means related to the highest good. Secondly, eudaimonia is an act, which embodies the soul’s activities, specifically referring to the rational act. There are two aspects of rational acts’ meaning in Aristotle, one is the manifestation of the essence of rational activity, such as reasoning and computation; Secondly, rational acts means that the desire to obey the reason. Therefore, moral virtues are the premise of happiness. Thirdly, from two kinds of happiness:contemplation and the moral happiness, the moral happiness is the sufficient condition of eudaimonia. The purpose of studying eudaimonia is for polis’s happiness and individuals’s happiness, but the eudaimonia has practicality. Contemplation, which is for the essence of man, is a kind of good, but the good is only in the sense of theory. Therefore, contemplation is not the sufficient condition of eudaimonia. At last what eudaimonia means is uncertain. Because different people have different desires. For example:a clever criminals. His ability to reason and calculation is very good, but his reason is to satisfy his dishonest desire. His behavior shows that his desires enslave his rational;That desire to enslave the reason means his reason doesn’t play well, which means his soul unharmony.Soul is not harmony means that this person is not a good person.The clever criminals didn’t have eudaimonia. Thus a man whose ability of ration is good without virtus is not a good person. Similarly, a man of virtue is a good person. The argument is as follows:a good person means that the person has eudaimonia, good people become good by doing good. One good deed is rooted in the soul of harmony. Harmony of the soul lies in the desire to obey reason command. Desire to obey reason command means rational play well. So people with virtue have eudaimonia.The knowledge of practical philosophy is from behavior experiences. Whoever wants to study eudaimonia at least should have behavior experiences related to justice.Previous studies of Aristotle’s eudaimonia focused on the concept of eudaimonia, ignoring that the theoria of eudaimonia is from behavior experiences. Behavior experiences are identical with the act. The concept of act is the key to interpreting Aristotle’s eudaimonia. I argue that Aristotle’s Eudaimonia is practical happiness, which take the act as the starting point and as the ending point. There is three chapters in my article. The first chapter includes the requirements for the research of eudaimonia and the method of Aristotle studying Eudaimonia. The second chapter is about the starting point of Aristotle’s Eudaimonia and Eudaimonia’s the cause of power and purprse. The third chapter is related to the purpose of the Eudaimomia’s study, which is for man’s happiness and polis’s happiness. Eudaimonia,as Aristotle said, is nonsense as a concept. Practical happiness is People yielding for.The research on eudaimonia has practical significance for Aristotle. Aristotle said that if happiness is a kind of state, then in a lifetime the person who is sleeping or those unfortunate people also can be happy. Therefore, eudaimonia is not a kind of state,but an activity.