Ideas of Happiness According to Mill and Aristotle
- Philosophers have always been interested in understanding the nature of happiness. Why does happiness matter in our life? What are the reasons Aristotle and John Stuart Mill agree make happiness a good thing? How we can understand the value of happiness? People wonder if we can measure happiness as higher pleasure or lower pleasure. In early centuries many philosophers’ thought about what human happiness means. They both share the same ideas that happiness is the ultimate good, the greater good and pleasure. All of us want to be happy as we live every second of our life. But in general if you ask any person what is happiness they tell you nothing more than these, the good things that makes us to feel nice and satisfied or may be it is the recipe that makes our life more interesting. Philosophers Aristotle and Mill share the same ideas that happiness is a good thing, but the two of them had different views and moral theories about happiness. The following paragraphs compare and address Aristotle and Mill’s ideas on human happiness.
- Aristotle questioned himself to find out what the ultimate goal, desire and purpose of human being. He asks if we know it how we can achieve it? Aristotle lays out three things something must posses in order to fulfill the purpose of a highest good. He said, first, it has to be self-sufficient, which means once you get it, it’s good you don’t need other things. Secondly, it has to be final goal, which is something you want for its own sake. Thirdly it has to be attainable, it has to be something real and accessible. (Timmons, 232-235). He concluded that each of these things lead us to some other desires, but to fulfill these ultimate purposes is human happiness. Aristotle bravely described happiness as the ultimate good, which is the ultimate end of a perfect life.
- Actions always happen for a reason, for the sake of something deemed to be a greater good. Why do so many people around the world work hard? People constantly work everyday, and dig deep in every aspects of their lives in the present and future to reach their goal and purpose in life. This shows around the globe people are more concerned to get money because it is crucial thing in our daily activities, we can use it to pay rent, we can buy a house with it and so on. People indirectly are more eager to seek their goals and meet their happiness through these activities.
- I think Aristotle’s thought is right in many directions in human life. For example, why am I going to school? It is because I’m planning to get rid of illiteracy and looking forward to become successful, fulfilling my will and happiness. These are the reasons why I completely agree with the claim made by Aristotle. For example, if I get a good education, I will get a good profession, then get money and have a family, helping others with my knowledge and skills. In these situations I’m fulfilling the commitments I’m seeking for, gaining happiness and benefiting from the choice I made and reaching the ultimate goal.
- I believe there is nothing better than happiness; this is why Aristotle emphasized happiness as the ultimate good. For example, if we did not have spinal cords we would not walk. Like our spinal cords, happiness is a core part we need in our life and probably we could not exist without it. Aristotle believed things like wealth, health and knowledge as happiness, but that money isn’t happiness because it is a mere means that can lead us to get there. He also believed that family is the vital key to find happiness as an individual and societies. According to Aristotle, motivation plays a big role in getting us to meet our goal in order to get happiness in the future. If we apply Aristotle’s suggestions, happiness is infinite and unlimited, and it, like the air we breathe, is always around us.
- According to Mill, happiness " is simultaneously a label for a goal that readily comes into conflict with many other goals, fame, and glory (Ryan, 2010). The Greater happiness Principle moral law states, "Actions are right in proportion to its ability to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness” (Timmons, 115). Mill says, pleasure and the absence of pain are the only desirable things, which means pleasure is the only intrinsic good (Mill, 1998). It’s worth the sake of anything that happens as ends. The purpose of life is no higher than pleasure (Timmons, 116). Then he created two categories as higher and lower pleasure that exists in human nature. Higher and lower pleasures are the two main categories of happiness, but which one is more pleasurable than the other? Well that would most likely depend on the person and whether they are doing right or enough to make them pleasurable (Thomas, 2011). Every human being always has goals and works hard to find happiness.
- Mill understood that quite in different way each person has their own level of happiness, their own ways of expressing feeling of happiness and understanding happiness. He explained that knowledge or imagination were higher pleasures because they bring deep and mental satisfaction, while things such as eating, sleeping and drinking or anything to do with "animal appetites" were lower pleasures because they are more physical and bodily feelings (Thomas, 2011). He says, “It is better to be a human dissatisfied than a pig satisfied” because a human being has the most complete ways of understanding the quality of pleasure and the pig’s satisfaction is nothing more than quantitative pleasure. Mill’s sees bodily pleasure as inferior to moral or mental pleasure (Timmons, 116).
- I absolutely agree the claims made by Mill about higher pleasure and lower pleasure. It is true that people with higher education levels and higher income levels have more possibilities to get higher pleasure (Cunado, 2012). It’s like the more you get the more you happy. Mill’s tries to prove his ideas that if the action we made is right it increase pleasure and decrease pain and if the action is wrong it increases unhappiness and decreases pleasure. I’m convinced that Mill’s understanding of happiness is more realistic and exists in the real world. I also believe any human being who had experienced both types of pleasure would choose a higher over a lower pleasure.
- In my opinion, happiness is vitally necessity for all human beings. It has the biggest value in our life. It plays the biggest role in our everyday activities. Both philosophers made a great contribution for us and at the end they both emphasized one main objective that is happiness. To me Mill’s views of happiness is more compelling and inspiring. It is interesting the ways he sees human and animal pleasure in different ways that clearly shows his views of human pleasure as superior than animal pleasure. His careful thought of understanding happiness as higher pleasure and low pleasure is right that every person have his or her own ways understanding pleasure.
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