An individual with a modest life can be happy through his or her own self-sufficiency and intellect. She does not need the notorious lifestyle of the rich and powerful, which today’s media and society glorify, to be happy. Any person, no matter her occupation or status in the world, may arrive at happiness through personal contemplation. Such an answer appears complex, but Aristotle explicates that a happy life “is in accordance with virtue,” (193) and he specifically refers to wisdom (and intellect) as the highest kind of virtue. Ergo, the wiser an individual is the happier she will be.
How can reveling in one’s thoughts and exploring one’s mind result in happiness? What about the seemingly endless list of things that I, or anyone else wants or really seems to need? Humanity takes part in numerous pleasurable activities, hoping to fill an emotional void or to unwind from a taxing schedule. These “pleasurable amusements” do in fact fit in the category of happiness, yet these actions all have endings. Whatever it may be, a vacation in the Bahamas, or a simple walk through Central Park truly provide for a pleasurable time, but eventually come to an end. The individual must return to reality and again choose another bodily pleasure to entertain herself for a while in hopes of arriving at some form of happiness.
Contemplation is unique and personal—something that only the individual can enjoy on her own. No one else is able to interact or alter another’s thoughts or ideas. It is personal and secretive; unlike any kind of pleasurable amusement, the activity of intellect “seems superior in its seriousness, to aim at no end beyond itself, and to have its own proper pleasure” (195). In other words, a person’s thoughts are endless and without boundaries therefore having no end to its beginning.
Because of contemplation’s “open-endedness,” no person will encounter the same feelings as she may experience when she does something to entertain herself. The inevitable and somewhat sad realization that bodily pleasures must come to a finale is never felt when a person absorbs herself in thought. With personal wisdom, the intellectual is never let down because their contemplation comes from within them and is dependent of anything else.
Aristotle later discusses the importance of society and laws to help individuals understand the importance of self-sufficiency. The way a child is raised (either by his or her parents or by a community) influences his or her ability to understand the idea of a temperate lifestyle, which can successfully lead to a happy life. Many times individuals are taught to believe that power and wealth are the only two things that pave a way to a happy life, but Aristotle encourages people to realize that the most essential requirement for a happy life is their own personal wisdom to continuously engage and apply themselves to the world around them.
Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Indianapolis: Hackett Company, 1999.
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