Study On Comparision Of Aristotle And Mill's Theory Of Happiness

"Happiness"is the one of the most significant important subject that ethicist have been studying all the time. From one point of view, we can say that its main task is to study and answer definition of happiness and to guide people how to realize happiness. We have various answer regarding issue of happiness from time to time, however, we have to take those historical greatest ethicist's thought into consideration when we ponder about how to search happiness and how to apply happiness.Aristotle is the most outstanding rational ethicist in the time of ancient Greek, and Mill is the typical representative of utilitarianism in modern time. Both of them have studied deeply on matter of happiness and made great impact on development of present ethics, but in different way. Aristotle's concept of happiness is the sum up of former ethics and showed the strong foundation with profound understanding of concept of happiness for nowadays society. The reason choosing Aristotle and Mill's concept of happiness as my essay's title is not only for my admiration of their brilliant concept but also for the deep concerns of reality. But utilitarianism take happiness as a passport to the possession of fame and fortune, so it carries strong charactors of utilitarianism. And to some extent, it will kill the sublime and purity of morality, and cause recession of morality and lead it into another transformation of thought. This changing phenomenon could be well proved by the fact of advocating the reuse of Aristotle's concept of happiness .We cannot deny that there is a weakness in Mill's ethics regarding to happiness.Although Mill's concept of utilitarianism had many sparking theories and ideas, but We can't deny that there is a weakness in Mill's ethics regarding happiness.It has an obvious limitation on his theory. Mill emphasized"the principle of greatest happiness"in his theory that putting all individual's happiness as your goal is the way how you achieve your own happiness. He even suprisingly advocated the moderate personal sacrifice. From his theory we can see that he was one of the greatest athicist who had insight of society and a heart of generosity and sympathy. But untill now, his theory had never applied in reality but had only longed and applauled in people's mind.Dharma, or in another word morality, is the most important ingrediant of happiness for either individuals or human beings. But dharma doen't equal to happiness, happiness can only be achieved by moderate use of dharma, if you persuit personal interest too much, it can only bring you endless unfortunate and pain. Aristotle also pointed out that happiness can't be formed without moderate fortune. Thus, happiness can't be happiness without little foundation of wealth, but be aware that its most important component is not wealth, but the degree of personal desire and emotion. So as long as we think things rationally and apply the perfect Dharma by balancing the personal emotion and desire, we could understand the essence of happiness and enjoy the sensation of happiness.