Happiness VS. Virtuous

Happiness and Virtue are interesting because they are both hard to define, not concrete, and interweaved heavily into our culture. Happiness is defined as 1. The quality or state of being happy. 2. Good fortune; pleasure; contentment; joy. Virtuous is defined as 1. Conforming to moral and ethical principles; morally excellent; upright: Lead a virtuous life. Consequently, the two principles of virtue and happiness are often affected by each other. For example there are many rich people that aren’t happy because they did not take a virtuous path to achieve their wealth. Happiness often also influences being virtuous. For example, often when people are having a great day, they are more pleasant to be around. Because they feel they are more in control of their destiny, happy people are more likely to give towards the destinies of others, thus making them more virtuous then unhappy people. However, this brings up several questions. Is it fair to measure people’s virtue even if they are of opposite ends of the happiness spectrum? Do happiness and virtue always have a direct relationship? My immediate answer to both of these questions would have to be no. You cannot compare someone with a horrible life vs. a great life evenly, judging them based off of how much of a “good” person they are. Also, I’m sure you can think of many happy people that aren’t virtuous, just as you can probably find some people with really harsh lives that are virtuous beyond belief. My biggest question about this topic is regarding virtue; is virtue an element of nature or is it something man-made? Originally I thought it must be ingrained in nature because we all agree that some qualities are great such as courage, kindness, and ambition, while qualities such as laziness, anger and greed are frowned upon. However from an animalistic standpoint, often “evil” qualities such as greed and selfishness prevail when creatures are in competition for resources and food.