I have come upon various theories as to what may be the aim of man - the one that seems the most logical to me is "happiness". What gives us happiness is a question to which i have no certain answer, for I've found that different things give happiness to different people, but what I do believe is that every action of ours, directly or indirectly, is calculated towards the achievement of happiness.
Here are Aristotle's views on "happiness" as the goal of man and what, according to him, is the way to achieve it.......
"Aristotle begins by frankly recognising that the aim of life is not goodness for its own sake, but happiness. "For we choose happiness for itself, and never with a view to anything further; whereas we choose honour, pleasure, intellect...because we believe that through them we shall be made happy. But he realizes that to call happiness the supreme good is a mere truism; what is wanted is some clearer account of the nature of happiness, and the way to it. He hopes to find this way by asking wherein man differs from other beings; and by presuming that man's happiness will lie in the full functioning of this specifically human quality. Now the peculiar excellence of man is his power of thought; it is by this that he surpasses and rules all other forms of life; and as the growth of this faculty has given him his supremacy, so, we may presume, its development will give him fulfillment and happiness.
"...though external goods and relationships are necessary to happiness, its essence remains within us, in rounded knowledge and clarity of soul. Surely sensual pleasure is not the way: that road is a circle: we scratch that we may itch, and itch that we may scratch...No, happiness must be a pleasure of the mind; and we may trust it only when it comes from the pursuit or the capture of truth.”
posted by Sylvia D'souza at 7:39 pm
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