Happiness is the Highest Good - Aristotle

It seems this is simple advice. After all, in life, nobody needs Aristotle to say that what we need to be looking for is happiness. We are all looking for happiness whenever we do anything. Even a robber steals because he wants to be happy. A policeman catches the robber for the same reason, and the judge prosecutes him for the same reason. Everyone is looking for happiness, but their means are different.

I am sure Aristotle did not mean that everyone should rob everyone else to feel the highest good. It looks like he expected this everlasting happiness to come from living a virtuous life — with competence, care, compassion, self-confidence, ethics, and so on. However, there is no guarantee that such a life will eventually lead to happiness. Life seems to have an inherent unpredictability attached to it. Although these uncertainties seem to arise from reasons far beyond our control, there are still a few things we can influence to get a desired outcome in the future.

Peaceful

Life seems like giving someone a bicycle and expecting them to go faster than the speed of light. We simply cannot, by design, overcome all the problems of life. So, how can someone be expected to live a virtuous life when outcomes are not guaranteed, even for actions done with good intentions?

I would not try to trick myself by saying that I will get a better life next time, with a body that can last ten thousand more years in heaven. Instead, I might ask, “Then what?” Even if I gain immortality, I would still ask, “Then what?” These questions may sound mundane or mediocre to some, and unlikely or impossible to happen. But then again, the world has repeatedly shown that there are hidden dimensions to it that we simply cannot comprehend. We might just be like trees in someone’s garden, without the ability to move or see.

Let’s step back from these hypothetical scenarios and think about life. What creates our problems anyway? This question reminds me of a quote from a film. A Walk in the Clouds is the film, and Julian’s father says, “Boys, they do have expectations,” when she is given a sweater as a gift. It made me realize that he is going to have his expectations crushed when he finds out she is going to die in a few years, because the girl has a terminal illness.

If happiness is highest good how can we achieve this?

Good

Yes — the reason for our problems or sorrow is our expectations. Our expectations to become what we are not yet. We all have this expectation without knowing it, and it is called the will to live. We are not satisfied simply being in this moment. We want to move to the next moment with more happiness, gaining some advantage over this one. No wonder we are not happy: this attitude toward life is a guaranteed way of losing this moment, which is where happiness would exist if it exists at all.

Here is a thought. Even if happiness is not present in this moment, this moment is still all we have. Let it be anger, sadness, or boredom — if you choose to fight these fundamental feelings in favor of happiness, you will never win. I am sure this makes sense to someone who understands themselves deeply. If not, it is not because what is being said is wrong; it is because we have not looked inside ourselves long enough to observe what is going on.

So, the key to living a virtuous life is expecting nothing from it — not because you cannot expect anything, but because that is the only success we can truly achieve by living it. And it costs nothing in this moment.