Does the concept of happiness through reasoning have meaning for you? I consider how, when I plant a seed, measure the depth of soil and its content, place the pot so that it catches a certain slant of light (thank you Emily D.)--my actions are guided by reason, and so, in that instance, I am experiencing eudemonia. Can you conjure up moments of eudemonia in your life?
eudemonia \yoo-di-MOH-nee-uh\, noun:
1. Happiness; well-being.
2. Aristotelianism. Happiness as the result of an active life governed by reason.
We all seek eudemonia, but he thinks that it takes
a great deal of reflection and education to get a clear enough conception of it
really to aim at it in our practice.
-- Robert Campbell Roberts, Intellectual Virtues
They may have believed that we already do value duty, utility, and eudemonia, but it is debatable whether they need to make such
descriptive claims.
-- Jesse J. Prinz, The Emotional Construction of
Morals
From Aristotle, eudemonia comes from the Greek word eudaímōn
which meant "a good or benevolent spirit."
1 comment:
I thought a little Pandemonium might add some zip to eudemonia. Mr. Webster disagrees. Pandemonium was the capital of Hell in Milton's Paradise Lost. A sign on my bulletin board: Keep calm and Carry on.
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