Otherwise, I had to renounce contemplation, that is, to renounce the philosophy…
By the same logic, since we find that some people believe in God and some don’t, we can’t not deal with the question of His existence.
In any case, we have to do with philosophy, i.e. with a reflection of theoretical (abstract, rational, conceptual) and practical (since it must lead to a certain way of life and action).
This also applies to happiness – from the moment someone is trying to live better is certainly in the mind of the prospect of a life as possible better, of a life that will provide absolute satisfaction: this is what traditionally we call happiness.
Doesn’t always as a main subject in philosophy (depends on the philosophers), but it is inevitably the object of any philosophical reasoning, which requires completeness and consistency.
Therefore, if we get this right, in accordance with Socrates the philosophy allows us to identify the conditions of a happy life?
From Socrates and after one of the main goals of philosophy was to determine the meaning of “well-being”. Can we see more happy, more enjoyable life that includes the greatest pleasures and joys, the greatest satisfaction?
Or is his life more fair, wise and virtuous man who is appreciated by side of morality?
For Socrates and for the whole of the ancient Greek philosophy of force and the two points of view: the pleasure of living is the most happy and at the same time the most virtuous life.
This is what we call the “supreme good”, that is, the greatest happiness and the greatest virtue. If someone was happy and mean spirited, we would not have reason for the supreme good, because it would have been preferable to be happy and virtuous. If someone was morally good, a saint but unhappy man, and again there would have been no supreme good, because it would be better to be virtuous and happy.
The highest good is not merely the happiness or virtue: it is the one with the other. The whole of ancient Greek thought will be developed around this theory of the supreme good, which combines the maximum happiness and maximum virtue.
Indeed, this is impossible for ancient Greek philosophy. The bad man can find pleasure; but to be happy. Here are the main ancient Greek philosophers. It only remains to see if they are right…
Can, be happy a con? It can be miserable, a man morally good, wise? In both these questions the more ancient give a negative answer, while we modern we would reply, probably in the affirmative: we feel that it is not enough virtue for the happiness nor the happiness to virtue. In other words, the second philosophical revolution (the first was the socratic revolution), Kant, who introduced us to modernity, we no longer believe in the ultimate good.
Source
There may be unethical happiness? Happiness as a supreme good – Aristotle
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