Aristotle believed that The Golden Mean, temperance, was the balance between too much and too little, i.e. courage, too much courage would make a man reckless and too little courage would make a man a coward. I do not see how then if our end goal for all of our choices, our choices in life, are to be happy how his thinks also there could be a temperance in everything else. Why would it not be that if we were happy all the time would that not be the extreme, the too much, thus not balancing, and having temperance with happiness as well? Would we not become unhappy by being happy all the time? Isn't being unhappy part of knowing what being happy is and then balancing it out?
I definitely believe in Aristotle's idea of the Golden Mean. If I've learned anything, and as I continue to learn in life, I realize moderation is the key too happiness. Too much of anything, could possibly make you successful in one aspect of your life, but will leave you less successful in another aspect. I don't think it's possible to be happy all the time and I also believe that it takes an entire life time to attain happiness. Although I can't possibly know, it seems that up until the point of one's death, they can determine whether or not they've accomplished the things they've wanted to accomplish and whether or not they did what made them truly happy.
ReplyDelete