Review Questions:

1.    What is happiness, according to Aristotle? How is it related to virtue? How is it related to pleasure?

-       According to Aristotle, Happiness is not pleasure, honor, or wealth, but an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. It is related to virtue because applying virtue in one’s life helps them accumulate and gain happiness to the things they are doing. Being at their prime or much better version of themselves gives them happiness that surpasses anything. Happiness is related to pleasure because through the virtues being practiced in one’s life, the happiness it achieves can be used to acquire pleasure.

2.    How does Aristotle explain moral virtue? Give some examples.

-       According to the teaching of Aristotle, Moral Virtue comes from training and habit, and generally is a state of character that is a mean between the vices of excess and deficiency. An example of a Moral Virtue is the virtues that people get when they are growing up. They can get this moral virtue from their family members, friends, and other people.

3.    Is it possible for everyone in our society to be happy, as Aristotle explains it? If not, who cannot be happy?

-       Yes, they can be happy as long as they put both their mind and body into it. A great example for this is the typical Filipino. Even though majority of Filipinos are having heavy difficulties in their lives, they still have the courage to smile and be happy. Those who cannot be happy are those who would let go of their virtues in life and grasp something that would be the center of their lives such as revenge, anger, and failure.

Discussion Questions:

1.    Aristotle characterizes a life of pleasure as suitable for beasts. But what, if anything, is wrong with a life of pleasure?

-       I think that the so called Life of Pleasure becomes wrong whenever a person focuses on it and solely for it. For example is if a person does everything for the sake of earning money, obtaining sexual desires, or enacting a revenge to satisfy their life. This kind of lifestyle is something that is very suitable for a beast.

2.    Aristotle claims that the philosopher will be happier than anyone else. Why is this? Do you agree or not?

-       Well I think that philosophers would be happier because of the knowledge and wisdom they posses about the world they are living in. They know different kinds of things other people don’t even have the capacity to know. But all in all, I disagree with it. Why you might ask? It is because every person existing in this world is unique in its own. Not all people are interested in knowledge and wisdom; some of them are just fine with what they have. They are focused on what they are interested in.