The Connection Between Happiness And Virtue

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The Connection Between Happiness and Virtue
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is an analysis of character and intelligence as they relate to happiness. Aristotle distinguished two kinds of "virtue," or human excellence: moral and intellectual. Moral virtue is an expression of character, formed by habits reflecting repeated choices. A moral virtue is always a mean between two less desirable extremes. Courage, for example, is a mean between cowardice and thoughtless rashness; generosity, between extravagance and parsimony. Intellectual virtues are not subject to this doctrine of the mean. Aristotle argued for an elitist ethics: Full excellence can be realized only by the mature male adult of the upper class, not by women, or children, or barbarians (non-Greeks), or salaried "mechanics" (manual workers) for whom, indeed, Aristotle did not want to allow voting rights.
This idea does not hold strong, however, because it asserts that morality is a virtue or morality is a coefficient of external factors, namely rich and the poor; the educated and the uneducated, etc. However, morality is a factor by itself and can only be expressed in its true form, independent of what kind of person is expressing it.

According to Aristotle, the good is "defined as that which all things aim" (1094a2-3, 3). For example he sites politics as being an example of the good because "the end of politics is the good for man" (1094a 8-9, 4). He stipulates the difference between the good and the highest good by analyzing different degree of outcome in difference fields. He compares for example the good of the state as a whole and that of the individual, showing that it is far more significant to safeguard the well being of the state over that of an individual. Yet, Aristotle admits that even the good does not yield happiness of all involved. This is what he calls the limitations of ethics and politics. Here, he shows that politics has it flaws because not everyone is ...