Aristotle

by George Grote

The definition of what happiness really is seems to be one of the weak points of Aristotle’s treatise. In a work addressed to the public, it is impossible to avoid making the public judges of the pleasure and pain, the happiness and unhappiness of individuals. A certain measure of self-esteem on the part of the individual, and a certain measure of esteem towards him on the part of persons without, come thus to be regarded as absolutely essential to existence. Without these, life would appear intolerable to any spectator without, though the individual himself might be degraded enough to cling to it. But these are secured by the ordinary morality of the age and of the locality. The question arises as to degrees of virtue beyond the ordinary level: Are we sure that such higher excellence contributes to the happiness of the individual who possesses it? Assuming that it does so contribute, are we certain that the accession of happiness which he thereby acquires is greater than he would have acquired by an increase of his wealth and power, his virtue remaining still at the ordinary level? These are points which Aristotle does not establish satisfactorily, although he professes to have done so: nor do I think that they are capable of being established. The only ground on which a moralist can inculcate aspirations after the higher degrees of virtue, is, the gain which thereby accrues to the happiness of others, not to that of the individual himself.

Aristotle appeals to God as a proof of the superiority of an internal source of happiness to an external source — vii. 1, “using God as a witness who is happy and blessed, yet not through any external good, but through Himself and from His own nature.â€� Again, vii. 3, “For at leisure God would be happy, and the whole universe (κόσμος), who have no external actions except such as are proper to themselvesâ€� — in proof of the superiority of a life of study and speculation to a life of ambition and political activity. The same argument is insisted upon in Eth. Nic. x. 8. It is to be observed that the Κόσμος as well as God is here cited as experiencing happiness.

The analogy to which Aristotle appeals here is undoubtedly to a certain extent a just one. The most perfect happiness which we can conceive — our Idea, to use Kant’s phrase, of perfect happiness — is that of a being who is happy in and for his own nature, with the least possible aid from external circumstances — a being whose nature or habits dispose him only to acts, the simple performance of which confers happiness. But is this true of the perfectly virtuous nature and habits? Does the simple performance of the acts to which they dispose us, always confer happiness? Is not the existence of a very high standard of virtuous exigency in a man’s mind, a constant source of self-dissatisfaction, from the difficulty of acting up to his own ideas of what is becoming and commendable?

That the most virtuous nature is in itself and essentially the most happy nature, is a point highly questionable — to say the least of it: and even if we admit the fact, we must at the same time add that it cannot appear to be so to ordinary persons without. The internal pleasures of a highly virtuous man cannot be properly appreciated by any person not of similar character. So that unless a person be himself disposed to believe it, you could find no means of proving it to him. To a man not already virtuous, you cannot bring this argument persuasively home for the purpose of inducing him to become so.

In regard to prudence and temperance, indeed, qualities in the first instance beneficial to himself, it is clear that the more perfectly he possesses them, the greater and more assured will be his happiness. But in regard to virtuous qualities, beneficial in the first instance to others and not to himself, it can by no means be asserted that the person who possesses these qualities in the highest degree is happier than one who possesses them in a more moderate and ordinary degree.

Aristotle indeed says that the being just necessarily includes the having pleasure in such behaviour: for we do not call a man just or liberal unless he has a pleasure in justice or liberality (Eth. Nic. i. 8). But this does not refute the supposition, that another man, less just or liberal than he, may enjoy greater happiness arising out of other tastes and other conduct.

In order to sustain the conclusion of Aristotle respecting the superior happiness of the virtuous man, it is necessary to assume that the pleasures of self-esteem and self-admiration are generically distinguished from other pleasures and entitled to a preference in the eyes of every right judging person. And Aristotle does seem to assume something of this nature. He says — x. 3 — “Or that pleasures differ in kind? For the pleasures arising from the honourable are different from those arising from the base; and it is not the case that the unjust man experiences the pleasure of the just, or he that is unmusical that of the musician.� The inherent difference between various pleasures is again touched upon x. 5 — “And since the functions differ in goodness and badness — some of them being objects of desire, others of them to be eschewed, and others of them neither — so is it likewise with the pleasures: for each function has its own pleasures. The pleasure then that is proper to the function of good is good, and that which is proper to the function of bad is bad; for the desires of things honourable are praiseworthy, those of things base are to be blamed. And the pleasures attaching to them are more proper to the functions than are the appetencies themselves.� In the next chapter, in that remarkable passage where he touches upon the predilections of men in power for the society of jesters and amusing companions (“The many have recourse to the amusements of those that are accounted happy�) — “For it is not in kingly power that you find either virtue or intellect, on which the higher functions of man depend. Nay, not if princes who have never tasted the relish of pure and liberal pleasure, have recourse to the pleasures of the body, on which account these must be thought the more desirable. For children consider those things to be best that are held in honour among themselves.�

Here we have a marked distinction drawn between the different classes of pleasures — some being characterised as good, some bad, some indifferent. The best of all are those which the virtuous man enjoys, and which he considers the best: the pleasures inseparably annexed to virtuous agency. These pleasures are thus assumed to be of a purer and more exalted character, and to deserve a decided preference over every other class of pleasures. And if this be assumed, the superior happiness of the virtuous man follows as a matter of course.

I should observe that Aristotle considers happiness to consist in the exercise of the faculties agreeably to virtue (ἐνέργεια κατ’ ἀρετὴν) — the pleasure (ἡδονὴ) is something different from the exercise (ἐνέργεια) — inseparably attending it, indeed, yet not the same — “conjoined with the functions (ἐνεργείαις), and the two are so inseparable as to raise a question whether the function is not identical with the pleasureâ€� (x. 5). And he says, x. 7 — “We think that pleasure should be mixed up (παραμεμίχθαι) with happiness.â€�

It seems to be in the sense of self-esteem, which constitutes the distinctive mark of virtuous agency, that Aristotle supposes happiness to consist: the pleasure he supposes to be an inseparable concomitant, but yet not the same. The self-esteem is doubtless often felt in cases where a man is performing a painful duty — where the sum total of feelings accompanying the performance of the act is the very reverse of pleasurable. But still the self-esteem, or testimony of an approving conscience, is per se always pleasurable, and is in fact the essential pleasure inherent in virtuous behaviour. I do not see the propriety of the distinction here taken by Aristotle. He puts it somewhat differently, Polit. vii. 1 — “Living happily consists either in joy or in virtue to men, or in both.� And Polit. viii. 5 — “For happiness is a compound of both these (honour and pleasure).� So Polit. viii. 3.