Positive Quiddity: Eudaimonia Is The Crown

Eudaimonia or eudaemonia (Greek: εὐδαιμονία; Greek --sometimes Anglicized as eudemonia --is a Greek word commonly translated as happiness. Etymologically, it consists of the word "eu" ("yea" or "well being") and "daimōn" ("spirit" or "minor deity"). Although the word is most commonly translated as happiness, or occasionally good fortune, "human flourishing" is sometimes preferred as a more accurate translation.

"Eudaimonia" is a central concept in ancient Greek ethics, along with the term "arete", most often translated as "virtue", and phronesis, often translated as "practical or moral wisdom." In classical Greek, eudaimonia was used as a term for the highest human good, and so it became the aim of practical philosophy, including ethics and political philosophy, to consider what it really is and how it can be achieved.

Discussion of the links between virtue of character (ethikē aretē) and happiness (eudaimonia) is one of the central preoccupations of ancient ethics, and a subject of much disagreement. As a result there are many varieties of eudaimonism. Two of the most influential forms are those of Aristotle and the Stoics. Aristotle takes virtue and its exercise to be the most important constituent in eudaimonia but does acknowledge the importance of external goods such as health, wealth, and beauty. By contrast, the Stoics make virtue necessary and sufficient for eudaimonia and thus deny the necessity of external goods....

In terms of its etymology, eudaimonia is an abstract noun derived from the Greek adjective, eudaimon. This adjective is, in turn, a compound word composed of eu meaning “well” and daimon (daemon), which refers to a sort of guardian spirit. Therefore, to be eudaimon is to live well, protected and looked after by a benevolent spirit. Despite this etymology, however, discussions of eudaimonia in ancient Greek ethics are often conducted independently of any super-natural significance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eudaimonia

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Speculation by the blog author: The benevolent guardian spirit can be looked at from Greek mythology as a combination of Sophia, the nine Muses, three Graces, Hermes, Prometheus, Heracles, Arete, Harmonia, Themis, Mnemosyne, Destiny, Nemesis, Tykhe, and Psyche.

This benevolent guardian can also be found in the Spirit of Wisdom speaking in Proverbs chapter 8 (“Hear; for I will speak of excellent things” --Proverbs 8:6 and "I love those who love Me; and those who seek Me early shall find me." Proverbs 8:17). My own speculation is that eudaimonia seeks “human flourishing” through wisdom and epistemic growth rather than mere happiness alone. We achieve eudaimonia through rational thought and the appreciation of excellence, particularly in art.

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Eudaimonia: Definition
Some have translated the classical Greek word "eudaimonia" (εὐδαιμονία, used by Aristotle) as the word "happiness," although Princeton University Aristotle scholar John M. Cooper proposes the translation, "human flourishing."

Aristotle on Eudaimonia

According to Aristotle and other classical philosophers, the hierarchy of human purposes aims at a highest, most inclusive end: eudaimonia (happiness or human flourishing). This is the end that everyone in fact aims at, and it is the only end towards which it is worth undertaking means.

Eudaimonia is constituted, according to Aristotle, not by honor, or wealth, or power, but by rational activity in accordance with excellence. Such activity manifests the virtues of character, including courage, honesty, pride, friendliness, and wittiness; the intellectual virtues, such as rationality in judgment; and it also includes non-sacrificial (i.e., mutually beneficial) friendships and scientific knowledge (knowledge of things that are fundamental and/or unchanging is the best).

Part 1

• Every act, craft, decision (i.e., all (intentional) human activity) aims at some end that seems good to the agent in some sense.
• There are two types of ends: those that are themselves activities (e.g., *playing the flute) and those that are products beyond the activity (e.g., housebuilding).
• There is a highest end or good.
• Knowledge of the highest end is useful.
• The highest end is the subject of practical wisdom. (This is only in Book 1, Later Aristotle says the highest end is the object of sophia that is philosophical wisdom)
• Practical wisdom has its own degree of exactness.
• Practical wisdom is useful for those who are guided by reason.
• Eudaimonia is commonly translated to happiness

Part 2

• The highest good is commonly agreed to be eudaimonia.
• Something must satisfy the following formal criteria if it is to be a suitable candidate for the highest end.
  
  • Some ends are complete, others are incomplete. The highest end must be complete.
  • Complete ends must have the following features:
    
    • They must be choiceworthy for themselves and not for some other end.
    • They must be self-sufficient. (They cannot be complete if they lack something.)
    • They must not become greater if another good is added to them.
      
      • For example, my salary becomes greater if I add a cookie to it. The good life does not necessarily become better if I add a cookie to it.
    • The highest good may be considered "the First Cause," or that than which no greater can be conceived, in the Medieval interpretation; that which is the greatest good, which all other good emanates from.
      
      • In contemplating this "Unmoved Mover," one attempts to exercise the highest degree of rationality, the greatest possible end.

*Eudaimonia satisfies these criteria.

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Part 3

• Function (ergon) argument:
  
  • Everything has a peculiar function.
  • What is good for an x depends on x's function. So, in order to determine what is good for x we must determine its function.
  • The function of human beings is to have and use reason.
    • There are two parts of the soul relative to reason: that which possesses reason in itself and that which merely participates in it.
  • We must distinguish the capacity for reasoning and the activity of reasoning. The essence of a capacity only comes out when it is used so it is the activity of reasoning that is the function of human beings.
    
    • It is possible to have reason without activating it and to both have and activate reason. The human function is the souls activity which expresses or requires reason. (Note the reference to the two parts of the soul here.)
  • That which displays its function well displays arete.
    
    • Note that we are talking about excellence here rather than moral virtue in the narrow sense.
    • Every function can be performed well or badly. It must be performed well if the thing is to be excellence.
    • The human function must be performed well if it is to display arete.
  • [Stability Requirement] The good life requires permanence and stability over time. The required activities must be displayed over time.
  • The human good is the activity of the soul which expresses or requires reason insofar as that activity is performed well and displayed over time.
• So, eudaimonia is:
  
  • The activity of those parts of the soul;
    
    • It is an activity, not a product;
    • It is more than just a capacity (the good life cannot consist in the mere possession of the peculiar capacities, it must consist in their use or actualisation)
    • It is an activity that is itself an end and is not intended to produce a further result.
  • which are peculiar to the human soul;
    
    • What matters are the parts of the soul that are peculiar to human beings because Aristotle wants to pick out the typical function of human beings.
  • If this activity is in accordance with human excellence;
    
    • Since every capacity can be used well or badly the activity of the human soul must be a good one, if we want to describe the good life for human beings.
  • If this activity is constant (can be ascribed to the complete human life);
    
    • Stability requirement.
  • Or, if there are several aretes, in accordance with the best and most perfect of them.
    
    • There are two parts of the human soul which are able to display excellence, that which displays reason and that which listens to reason. Aristotle seems to want to say that one of the excellences is better, and that the good life must be in accordance with that excellence.

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Eudaimonia