Book 1
2
As far as the name goes, we may almost say that the great majority of mankind are agreed about this; for both the multitude and persons of refinement speak of it as Happiness,This translation of εὐδαιμονία can hardly be avoided, but it would perhaps be more accurately rendered by Well-being or Prosperity; and it will be found that the writer does not interpret it as a state of feeling but as a kind of activity. and conceive the good life or doing wellThe English phrase preserves the ambiguity of the Greek, which in its ordinary acceptation rather means faring well than acting well, though in the sequel Aristotle diverts it to the active sense. to be the same thing as being happy. But what constitutes happiness is a matter of dispute; and the popular account of it is not the same as that given by the philosophers.
3
Ordinary people identify it with some obvious and visible good, such as pleasure or wealth or honor—some say one thing and some another, indeed very often the same man says different things at different times: when he falls sick he thinks health is happiness, when he is poor, wealth. At other times, feeling conscious of their own ignorance, men admire those who propound something grand and above their heads; and it has been held by some thinkersViz. Plato and the Academy; see chap. 6. that beside the many good things we have mentioned, there exists another Good, that is good in itself, and stands to all those goods as the cause of their being good.
4
Now perhaps it would be a somewhat fruitless task to review all the different opinions that are held. It will suffice to examine those that are most widely prevalent, or that seem to have some argument in their favour.
