Instructor: Prof. Cid Titus Cempron                                         Philosophy 2    MTW 8:30am-9:30am

Eudaimonia and the Polis

A personal analysis based on Aristotelian concept of Moral Virtue

By: Marlyn B. Amora

For Aristotle, the word “Eudaimonia”- a shallow term is Happiness, denotes a lifelong state of active ethical well-being considered as the goal of human activity. It means that, Happiness is the highest prominent good and all people are striving towards it. Happiness, then, is the final end of every human action. It is the main objective why people do such thing or action. To be really happy, he profess that one must live with complete or perfect virtue. Moreover, Happiness is a proper doing of state and doing it right. 

In my point of view about the idea of Aristotle in his concept of moral virtue, human being should live a life with virtue in order to acquire good life that leads to fulfillment of life and this is the idea of happiness.

For me, the idea of Aristotle indeed, is that happiness is a goal of human activity. In our life we only want to be happy and live our life to the fullest. None of us wants to be lonely for the rest of our lives. But in order to achieve that happiness we must live our life with virtue. Say for instance, our soldiers, why is it that they put their life in danger? It is because they love to protect and serve mankind, they want to have a big amount of salary, etc… because of that they obtain the happiness that they want to have, and it give them satisfaction. They live their lives with the virtue of bravery in the sense that they are willing to die in serving and protecting mankind.

               Personally, I wondered to myself, here-and-now situation, why I still necessary to go through suffering and hardship? But, then, at the end, I realize  it is for my own sake, my own future to be more strengthened that will lead to a more positive outcome, I live my life with the virtue of preparedness in every circumstance in  my life. Therefore, happiness and virtue is inextricable. Hence, it is inevitable for individual. 

               In doing so, we must be able to attain the doctrine of the mean, in order to attain a balance. If I will not sacrifice or suffer and most of all, I will not do my best then, certainly, I will not be happy.

                 On the other hand, according to Aristotle, the state or the polis- is he thinks, the only setting within which human being can live the sort of lives appropriate to their kind. Meaning, the polis or state is the people around you meet such as, family, community, and the relative. The community is thus an intricate web of human relationships, in which the individual can achieve the good life. The complete association, formed from several villages, is a polis, which should be said to have attained the point of self-sufficiency. Therefore, we can find Eudaimonia through the polis or state and the rational activity according to virtue. This is the ’end’; prescribe for us by our nature. It came into existence for the sake of our life, but exists for the sake of the good life. So every polis exists by nature, for it is our end, nature is an end.

                 The polis is the end of human association, since it is the context in which the individual can live the good life. Human relationships find their fulfillment within the polis. As their end, it constitutes their nature; and since they exist by nature, it exists by nature also.

            Base on my experience, I spent my first 16 years of life in Candijay before moving here in Tagbilaran; this time, I am certainly trying to become independent. At this moment, I focused on achieving my goals including learning on how to budget my allowance, participating in extracurricular activities, and doing well in all my classes.  It has a big different as of now, when I am starting to develop my skills and to discover myself. 16 years in Candijay makes me feel comfortable and memorable one. My everyday activities included going to school, playing with my cousins, friends, watching television, and Dance practice at the night time as a part of a dance group in Candijay. In my junior year, I had joined Girl Next Door, Performing arts, Science club, Student Catholic Action, Religious Club, Drum and Lyre Corps and also enrolled in few honor classes. Along with school, I also found a part time job at a public market in Lungsodaan, Candijay as a saleslady, to help my parents financially. 

               Honestly, I miss those things when I was in Candijay. But, then, I realize that, these entire things, is not for my own outcome but for the state or polis. This should have to attain the good life, in the sense of the state.  Because of that we tend to involve ourselves such things, which make as prominent to individual, let say for credentials only. Base on Aristotle, the polis is an all-sufficient community in this sense. Therefore, it is a natural community in that it meets all the needs, both moral and material, attaching to the natures of those who occupy it.