Aristotle's Thoughts on Morality

Like Plato, Aristotle believes that the good of the many out weigh the good of the few. However, Aristotle says that this is only the case in extreme circumstances, and that the individual should be though of and taken care of first and if we are to take care of the few, the many should be taken care of.

People generally disagree as to the nature and conditions of happiness. Some people believe happiness is 'wealth, honor, pleasure, or even virtue.' Aristotle thinks that wealth is not happiness, because wealth is just a monetary value, but can be used to gain some happiness. Just like wealth, honor is not happiness, because honor focuses more of the people that honor, rather than the honoree. Pleasure is not happiness, because "the life of gratification" is "completely slavish, since the life they decide on is the life for grazing animals." The last is virtue, and virtue is not happiness either, since one could be virtuous and not use it. Instead, Aristotle says that happiness is a combination of the four. Thus, Aristotle describes the good life by saying that, "the happy person is one who expresses complete virtue in his activities, with an adequate supply of external goods, not just for any time but for a complete life."

So, the good life consists of moral and intellectual virtue, a certain measure of goods, and friendship. But Aristotle is also interested in the relationship between happiness, on the one hand, and pleasure and contemplation, on the other. He wants to avoid that "pleasure is the good" and the other extreme that "it is altogether base." Aristotle's middle view is that, while pleasure is choice worthy," some pleasures are good and contribute to happiness. Aristotle believes that living involves activity motivated by desire, and pleasure follows successful activity. Yet happiness is not mere amusement; rather, amusement, like relaxation, is a means to productive activity, rather than an end to itself.