Philosophy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 13

Philosophy - Essay Example Happiness can have no other purpose than its own sake. Logically, we can’t desire happiness because we want to be intelligent, smart, successful, or any number of other things. These are things are not as valuable as happiness themselves, because these are the sorts of things that people strive for because they think they can achieve happiness through them. In this way people are using these as a means to an end, and even though this end is happiness, these sorts of things still are not as valuable. For instance, fame and money do not always bring people happiness. Often the case seems to be that the pursuit of these things gets in the way of the pursuit of happiness. People are able to be happy without large amounts of money or being famous, but these don’t make people happy in and of themselves. These things might lead a person to happiness, but happiness will not lead to these things. People also need to seem to have some function. Without a purpose to one’s life, there is no reason to attempt to accomplish anything. People need to feel like they are doing something, because if they feel that they are doing nothing, then there is no real purpose in being. By deliberately attempting to accomplish something, we are able to strive towards happiness. Aristotle felt that people needed to live a life of reason in order to have a purpose. By living a life a reason, it is possible to contribute to one’s own growth as a person, and this is enough to give people purpose. Aristotle was also concerned with virtue. As he saw it, virtue was not simply a matter of having a list of things that could and should be done and a list of things that shouldn’t be done. We must know the reason behind doing things. Take for instance religion. Religion gives people a list of things that should and shouldn’t be done. But religion does not offer reasons for why things