QuestionsWhat is happiness?Happiness and the human function
What is happiness?Virtue and wisdom

Happiness and the human function

Aristotle 384 BC · 322 BCObserve, classify, reason: happiness through virtue.
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What it claims

The human good, happiness, is activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.

Why

A thing's good is performing its function well, and the human function is to act according to reason, with excellence.

In short

"Happiness and the human function" is an argument by Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics, I 7) on the question "What is happiness?" (answer: virtue and wisdom). Its claim: The human good, happiness, is activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. According to AskPhilosophy's logic check (Z3 solver), the conclusion does follow from its 3 premises. AskPhilosophy presents 2 objections, 0 of them with a documented reply, and the original text behind each premise, checked word for word.

Nicomachean Ethics, I 7
Valid

Everyone wants to be happy, but what is happiness? Aristotle starts from a simple question: what is a human being for?

P1Each thing's good lies in its proper function: a flute-player's good is playing well.
P2The proper function of a human is activity of the soul according to reason, which neither plants nor animals share.
P3Performing a function well means performing it with excellence, that is, according to virtue.
Therefore the human good, happiness, is activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.

click a premise to reject it

If you accept every premise, logic forces you to accept the conclusion. So the debate is about the premises.
Checked by a logic solver: the premises cannot all be true while the conclusion is false.
The argument is valid and each premise is essential. The most contested point is P2: does a human being really have a function, like a tool or a craftsman?
Analogy. A good knife is one that cuts well. A good musician is one who plays well. For Aristotle, a happy human being is one who exercises well what makes us human: thinking and acting reasonably.

Objections

2

Each objection is a conversation: click to see who replies and where the debate stands.

T
The "function" objection (modern critics) attacks premise 2

A tool has a function because someone designed it for a use. A human being was not manufactured: speaking of "its function" assumes a purpose in nature one need not accept.

no reply
summary: their text is not yet in our corpus
No reply possible: objection raised after the author's death (-322).
Hume (from "is" to "ought") 1739 · attacks premise 1

Observing what a being does (its function) does not let us conclude what it ought to do: we cannot move from a fact to a value without a further premise.

no reply
summary: their text is not yet in our corpus
No reply possible: objection raised in 1739, after the author's death (-322).