Aristotle was the teacher of a thirteen-year old boy Alexander, who finally became Alexander the Great, a king of the antic greek kingdom of macedonia.
On happiness:
For Aristotle, an ethic life is a rational life. It should be centered around the final goal, which is satisfaction (eudaimonia). Eudaimonia is not the result or outcome of a lifelong effort. It is not something we are looking forward to, like waiting for retirement, to do what we want. It is the entire adulthood, enjoyable and stable. Aristotle suggests, that we can eliminate eudaimonia by considering the human function. The good of the things is the matter of a function. For example, the good of a flute play is the matter to play well. Consequently, doing something well is in accordance with the virtue or excellence. In this case, we can consider the good of a human as the good of the soul, and not as a body, such as health or beauty. The good of a human is neither an external good, like money, power or status. Nevertheless, happiness needs external goods, since we can’t do good deeds without any resources. To sum up, we can say that happiness comes, when someone does something well in accordance to living with virtues.
On character virtue:
A virtue is power, capacity to excel in something. Virtue is aquired by habituation, like handicraft. It’s about the matter, a condition in which we do the right things. Character virtues are concerned with actions and emotions, in which excess and lack are in error. In other words, we should train emotions, to answer at the right time, to the right people, in the right way about the right things. Here, character virtues aim at the inbetween. For example, to be fearless or being to afraid are both bad, while the intermediate condition the right thing is.
The cause:
According to Aristotle there are 4 types of causes:
1) The material cause, that of which, such as bronze of a statue
2) The formal cause ‚the form, the condition of what-it-is-to-be, for example the form of the bronze statue
3) The efficient cause ‚the main source of change. For example is the efficient change of the bronze statue the artisan
4) The final cause, the end for which will it is done. In this case, the final cause of the bronze statue is an aesthetic pleasure.
Final cause and use in nature:
To explain something, by reducing it to the meaning, is a kind of presocratic philosophy. Aristotle rejects this method, since life can not be explained by material things. He tries to combine usage and meaning. For example, if the final goal of the wall is the protection (Form), then we need stones and wooden logs (matter). The wall doesn’t exist because of the stones or logs, but to give protection and security. The same applies to other cases.
