Aristotle and the Achievement of Eudaimonia

Are you living, or merely just existing? Are you truly happy deep down or are you simply content with your existence? Are you flourishing in life or are you wallowing in monotony? One of the greatest influencers to western philosophy, and considered to be, perhaps the greatest philosophical, political, and ethical thinkers of all time linked all of those ideas of truly living, happiness, and flourishing together into a concept known as eudaimonia. What really is eudaimonia, and how does Aristotle define it? And, if we do not have it, what are the virtues that Aristotle believes that a person must have in order to obtain eudaimonia? In this essay, I will explain how Aristotle defines eudaimonia, and how a person can achieve eudaimonia. Then, I will go into detail on the virtue of bravery to really display what Aristotle is talking about, given that many of his ideas are often very unclear. Lastly, one of my family’s good friends is actually the police chief of the city that I live in, his name is Joe Bennet, and over the course of the years that I have known the man, he has displayed more courage and bravery than any single person I have ever met.

Aristotle can often be extremely vague in his works, including his definition of eudaimonia which he never blatantly states. By using his stories, questions, and spiels that he goes on, I concluded that Aristotle defines eudaimonia as when a human being is able to attain the most ideal conditions of his or her life that are possible. This is not only being happy in life or with your life, but by also living a meaningful life characterized by morality and virtuous traits. Aristotle states, “Anyone who is not deformed for virtue will achieve happiness”. Aristotle believes if there are no virtuous flaws in your character and the actions you take, then you are bound to be happy. This is true, for if everything you know you are doing is right and good for yourself and others, then how can you not be eudaimonic? The question that arises from this though is how exactly do we do this to have eudaimonia?

Aristotle argued that any person can achieve eudaimonia. Achieving eudaimonia is comprised of a myriad of different factors, however there are three main targets to hit, according to Aristotle. The first being that you must excel at your own specific tasks. This is based upon the circumstances that you are in and that your environment has provided you. For example, if you are a lawyer you should excel in prosecuting or defending the defendant depending on which side you are on, if you are a cook you should excel at cooking and preparing food, if you are a parent you should excel at parenting and raising your kids in the best possible way that you can. Despite all of these being separate entities of a lawyer, a cook, or a parent, it goes to show that every person takes on more than just one role or task in life. It is by excelling at all of the different roles and tasks that you have on your plate, in which you can truly reach a eudaimonic well-being. The second, goes hand in hand with the first part of having a eudaimonic life, and that is working hard. In order to excel at anything in life you need to put in the time and effort so that you are able to produce the best possible results that you are capable of. Lastly, Aristotle believed that you must develop your different virtues over time. Developing your virtues is something that will take a lot of time and maturity, and order to fully cultivate these different virtues one must be patient and willing to learn from other as well as his or her self. He says this because people must use the rationality concept of virtue ethics in order to find the middle ground between an excess of a virtue or a deficiency of a virtue, a process that will take years of experience in life. He makes that clear in this quote: “Among these three conditions, then, two are vices – on of excess, one of deficiency – and one the mean, is virtue”, with the middle ground being the mean he speaks of when it comes to the different virtues.

One particular virtue that Aristotle identifies is bravery. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, bravery is defined as “the quality or state of having or showing mental or moral strength to face danger, fear, or difficulty”. Aristotle defines bravery as a middle ground, between recklessness on the excessive side of the spectrum and cowardice on the deficient side of the spectrum. If you allow yourself to act overly brave you will make rash decisions that could harm yourself of others around you, leading to recklessness. However, if you do not have enough bravery and cannot stand up for yourself, others around you, and the things you care about, you are a coward.

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You might be wondering how exactly do we find this happy medium though? Aristotle states that “we learn a craft by producing the same product that we must produce…, temperate by doing temperate action, brave by doing brave actions”. It is understood that it takes time in order to develop truly virtuous morals, and we can only do so through practice until it becomes habit. To become brave, you must practice being brave by doing brave actions according to Aristotle. If you make a rash or cowardly action, you must think back and learn from that action and know to not repeat it, and over time through different experiences you will be able to turn those into habits. Eventually, it will become your nature, your virtue.

As mentioned earlier, multiple virtues are needed to reach eudaimonia. Bravery plays what I believe is the most important role in getting there. Having the bravery to stand up to do what is right, against what can often be the majority. For example, another one of the virtues that Aristotle mentions is mildness. One famous instance of this would be Martin Luther King Jr., who may be the political activist that left the largest mark on our nation’s history, who did not just sit back and do nothing about the severe racism in our country, instead he conjured up the courage to take a stand to protest peacefully against the white majority of our country. Rather than act irascibly or do nothing and let it go, he was brave enough to fight violence with peace and mildness, which made a significantly larger impact than any act of anger could have ever done. Without his bravery though he would have never been able to do this. This just goes to show that with no bravery, there are no other virtues, and that is why bravery is necessary to reach eudaimonia. This is a very well know example, but there are people in our everyday lives that display this virtue as well.

One man who has truly displayed the virtue of character in my life is a great family friend of mine, his name is Joe Bennet. Now the police chief of the city where I live in, he was a marksman in the United States SWAT department for over ten years, and for three of those years he served as the SWAT team commander. I have known him since I have lived there and have seen him receive countless medals for service, honor, and bravery. At many of my family’s brunches or dinner parties when I was younger, he would tell me stories of some of the ‘bad guys’, and to this day I have not met a single man who has displayed more bravery than Joe, by risking his life countless times in order to preserve peace, keep people safe, and make the community feel protected. He embodies both the dictionary definition of bravery as well as Aristotle’s, for he is in no way cowardly, but he always makes smart calculated decisions when on duty in order to maintain the safety of his team, as well as his own. He has had over 30 years’ experience in law enforcement, which has enabled him to go through countless situations, trainings, etc., which Aristotle says you must do in order to truly develop a virtue which he has. Earlier on in his career he might have been scared to go on certain duties, even cowardly if you will, but now he does not shy away from danger. Before he proceeds with anything though, he will use his head to plan and strategize to go about the situation the best way possible to not make rash decisions no matter how personal.

Aristotle, although he was not correct about everything and I think tried to make what he was saying as hard to understand for us as possible, was right about one thing. You need moral character by developing your virtues to be a wholly happy and eudaimonic person, and to do so you must be brave. There are so many people throughout our world’s history that have shown us what true bravery is, and probably many in your own life as well. So be courageous, do not succumb to cowardice. At the same time though, I did not tell you to go around trying to pick a fight with everyone that glances at you the wrong way. Do this, and maybe then you will achieve the eudaimonia that Aristotle believes in.