溫故知新 Old wisdom, today’s insight — ONGO
Is Happiness a Possession or an Activity?
Is eudaimonia — living well — a state one quietly possesses, or an activity one continually performs?
Happiness is a certain activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.
Aristotle's answer — that happiness is activity — was long contested. Epicurus saw it rather as a state, the tranquility free of pain; the Stoics placed it in an inner steadiness unmoved by externals. In modern times Bentham and Mill converted happiness into a calculable quantity, the sum of pleasures, weighing satisfaction of outcome over excellence of activity. Yet the twentieth-century revival of virtue ethics asked again: is the good life not "doing well" itself, rather than a sum of satisfactions? The split between state and activity remains open.
The more an age tries to measure and optimize happiness, the more this question — whether it is a result to grasp or an activity to live — changes the direction of a life.
Aristotle turned happiness from a noun into a verb.
📝I, Too, Stand Before It
Aristotle turned happiness from a noun into a verb. As even the finest character is useless if it only sleeps, happiness is not possessed but enacted. As the crown at the Olympics goes to the one who competes, not the spectator, living well belongs to those who exercise virtue. I understand this question is not comfort but summons. Do I stand still, wishing to "have become" a good person, or do I today "do" that good even once? I stand before it, between resting and acting.
✍️Your Answer
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