Essay on "What Is Happiness for Aristotle and Daniel Gilbert?"

Essay 8 pages (2526 words) Sources: 2 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Aristotle & Daniel Gilbert

PCS 230 -Classical Political Thought

Compare and contrast Aristotle's concept of happiness, as discussed in Ethics, to Daniel Gilbert's.

What is happiness? Both classic philosopher Aristotle and psychologist David Gilbert agree that it is not an easy concept to define. In fact, Gilbert goes so far as to argue that happiness cannot be defined. Instead, he argues that trying to define happiness is akin to trying to describe yellow to an alien that has never seen yellow. When describing either, we would not be able to provide an Oxford dictionary definition, but would instead point to different objects that are yellow or feelings that yellow inspires. This is the same with happiness. Asked to describe happiness, people might mention what makes them happy or that they feel other feelings -- like joy -- when they feel happiness. Thus, Gilbert defines happiness as very subjective to every human being. He does, however, divide happiness into three types, as he writes, "the word happiness is used to indicate at least three related things, which we might roughly call emotional happiness, moral happiness, and judgmental happiness" (31).

According to Gilbert, the moral happiness is Aristotle's version of eudaimonia. Gilbert writes that this happiness could be achieved, "For Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and even Epicurus, the only thing that could induce that kind of happiness was the virtuous performance of one's duties"(36). Gilbert also recognizes a judgmental happiness, which he refers to as "the happiness one gets from eating banana-cream pie"(39). Throughout the chapter, Gilbert focuses on the emotional happiness. According to Gilbert that concept of happiness is the most important and difficult to grasp. As Gilbert notes, "Emotional happiness is a phrase for feeling, an experience, a subjective state, and thus it has no objective referent in the physical world" (31).

In addition to being a difficult concept to define, something that is different for every human being, Gilbert also argues that one's idea and judgment of happiness can be vastly different based on our own human limits. For instance, Gilbert argues that human memory makes it difficult or impossible for a person to say that he or she is happier in one situation than another because a person is almost always remembering at least one of those situations. Human memory, then, is fallible. Still, Gilbert recognizes that there are prerequisites for happiness. For instance, Gilbert remarks that "happiness refers to feelings, virtue refers to actions, and those actions can cause those feelings. But not necessarily and not exclusively" (Gilbert 37). Thus, what Gilbert means to say here is that people can be happy even if they have committed some immoral action. That action still makes a person happy. Gilbert uses the following sentences as an example: "After a day spent killing his parents, Frank was happy" (Gilbert 37). While Gilbert acknowledges the disgustingness of this statement, he also calls the sentence "grammatical, well formed, and easily understood" (Gilbert 37). Furthermore, the scholar goes on to state that if Frank "says he is happy and looks happy, is there a principled reason to doubt him?" (Gilbert 37). On the other hand, Gilbert goes on to say that statements implying that those who are unconscious and inanimate objects may not be happy. Thus, Gilbert's hypothesis is that happiness is a difficult concept to define that can only be understood through a description of feelings and events or objects that make a person happy; that happiness is individual for each person; that a person can question his or her own states of happiness because of human weaknesses, and that certain prerequisites must exist for happiness to be possible.

Aristotle, on the other hand, finds happiness to be a bit more simplistic, or at least easier to grasp. Primarily, Aristotle happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul. As Aristotle writes, "Or is not his quite absurd, especially for us who say that happiness is an activity?"(19). Aristotle also states that happiness is the final goal of an action, as he states, "Happiness, than is something final and self sufficient, and is the end of action" (12). Aristotle discusses happiness as a way of a good life, as he states, "for we have practically defined happiness as a sort of living and faring well"(15). Thus, Aristotle's view of happiness is a virtuous one. It is less associated with a person's emotions than it is with his or her actions. Happiness, according to Aristotle, is a noble thing. The correct view of happiness, in Aristotle's eyes, is a happiness that is closely associated with a right and wrong. In order to be truly happy, one must be working for the greater good; one must be performing right actions. At the end of a person's action, happiness will result if that action is virtuous and good.

Of course, this view of happiness is only to be understood by the elite, according to Aristotle. While Aristotle writes that happiness is generally associated with "living well and doing well," the wise, or those of "superior refinement" certainly give a different definition to happiness than those who are less wise (Book I, 4). Those who are not of this superior distinction see happiness as "some plan and obvious thing, like pleasure, wealth, or honour" (Aristotle Book I, 4). Indeed, these people, who Aristotle goes on to call "vulgar" see happiness as associated with pleasure, and this is the "reason why they love the life of enjoyment" (Aristotle Book I, 4). The real happiness that is pursued by the "refined," on the other hand, is the pursuit of honor, according to Aristotle. The philosopher goes on, however, to contemplate whether even this can be said to be true happiness. He acknowledges that the pursuit of honor may be superficial, as some seek it only to have certain grand honors bestowed upon them by certain grand people. As Aristotle seems to use happiness and good interchangeably, this does not seem to fit his definition of true happiness. In addition, Aristotle states that this sort of life is one that is often associated with "lifelong inactivity," as a person can have honor while being asleep, or as David Gilbert would argue, in a coma. Finally, Aristotle reconsiders his own definition of happiness when he writes that someone seeking the greater good, seeking honor, might actually be living a life "so no one would call happy," a life "with the greatest sufferings and misfortunes" in the pursuit of Virtue (Aristotle Book I, 5).

Thus, like Gilbert, Aristotle realizes that happiness is a difficult term to define. While Gilbert makes an argument that happiness is primarily an emotional state that can be different from person to person, Aristotle argues that there are two different perceptions of happiness. Those who are of "superior mind" perceive happiness as the pursuit of honor or good, while those who are of a less superior mind associate it with pleasure. Happiness, then, Aristotle argues, is something akin to virtue and morality, something in which there is a distinct right and wrong. It is not the pursuit of pleasure, and it is not emotional, but it is the end result of seeking the greater good. Doubting his view, though, Aristotle does suggest that his view may be considered superficial, and that it could be bestowed on one who was inactive. Gilbert, on the other hand, does not see morality as linked completely with happiness. Instead, a person can be happy for the most vial of actions. To Gilbert, happiness is the associations that one makes with the feeling -- objects that make him or her happy and the other feelings that one has had while feeling happy. Happiness is a result of action. A person cannot feel happiness if they are inactive in mind. In addition, happiness is a human characteristic. A computer cannot feel happiness even if it accomplishes a certain action. Like Aristotle, Gilbert notices weaknesses in his theory when he remarks that humans cannot necessarily be trusted to evaluate their own happiness, based on the fallibility of their own memories. Thus, Aristotle and Gilbert's views on happiness are rather different, through they share similarities. In essence, Gilbert sees happiness as an emotion, while Aristotle sees it more as a result and a connection to virtue.

2. Are they talking about the same concept, when they use the term happiness?

Aristotle and Gilbert are clearly referring to different concepts when they talk about happiness. Aristotle's view of happiness is much more tangible than Gilbert's. This can be most easily observed by the fact that Aristotle is able to use the words happiness and good interchangeably. Although everyone might not experience the same types of happiness, which is evident in the fact that Aristotle distinguishes the superior minds from the less than superior ones, Aristotle clearly sees happiness has an ideal manifestation. Aristotle's happiness is only focused on achieving the best, as Aristotle writes, "happiness then is the best, noblest and most pleasant thing in the world… READ MORE

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