Research On Aristotle's Thought Of Realizing Eudemonia

The Greek environment of freethinking gave Aristotle the possibility of creating freely.People's minds were not confined to dogmatic thought,and the worship of polytheism made Greek no authoritative doctrines in strict sense.But during the Aristotle's life time,city-state leaders launched uninterrupted war in order to compete for the leadership,making the serious downhill of Greek morality.Those situations make Aristotle start to think about what is happiness and how to achieve happiness.Although Aristotle in his works still spent a lot of ink describing the theory of happiness,the happiness theory is to prepare for the practice of the practical activity.The real activity of happiness is the real purpose of Aristotle.The eudemonia in ancient Greece is an objective happiness.Judging whether a person is happy or not can be measured by some objective conditions.In his ethical works,Aristotle also refuted the so-called realization conditions of happiness,and finally came to the conclusion that the real activities of virtue are the leading factor of happiness.But before you have virtue,you need to stimulate potential abilities in your soul.Aristotle also discusses the three levels of purpose in his works of happiness.Instrumental and middle-level purposes are subordinate purposes,and they both pursue the ultimate purpose,but middle-level purposes are higher than instrumental purposes,because they are also valuable in themselves.The realization of potential belongs to the instrumental purpose,and the realization of virtue belongs to the middle-level purpose.The two are subordinate purposes,in order to pursue a higher leading purpose,namely happiness.Therefore,the realization of potential and the realization of virtue can be unified in the highest purpose—Happiness.Aristotle's idea of eudemonia realization has great transcendence for his predecessor's thoughts.First of all,on the definition of happiness,he emphasizes real activities,and embodies the abstract virtue into various practical activities.Secondly,he puts forward the concept of potential and reality,and advocates that human happiness activities should include both reason and emotion.However,Aristotle's theory of happiness also has some limitations of thought.Aristotle's understanding of practical activities is not complete and one-sided,and the speculative activities are too sacred and absolute.Aristotle's objective eudemonia theory does not provide a universal objective criterion,more empirical standards,and is actually the empiricalstandard of practical wisdom.But on the whole,Aristotle's eudemonia realization thought is outstanding,and it can be used for reference.In modern society,we can take the essence,choose to inherit the thought of happiness realization,recognize the essence of happiness,combine our potential,effort and virtue to realize true happiness.