8. Aristotle on Virtue by

1. According to Aristotle, happiness and fulfillment are directly correlated with virtue. By living in accordance to virtue is an essential part of achieving happiness or fulfillment. To live in virtue, is not merely by the thoughts of "good" or by weighing up, calculating, the benefits of various courses of action. Throughout your lifetime, you will need to perform habitual virtuous acts with constant practice, in which true happiness will be gained. Permanent inbred character traits, which can be dispositions of an individual, has to be developed overtime to be virtuous. . It is useless to just think or measure but by doing, taking action is the key component. Another very important point according to Aristotle is that, achieving virtue is not just one complete form, but it must be in constant development throughout our whole lifetime, making it a habit. It is very important that these actions are constant and consistent in order to develop them into habits. Aristotle further explains that to strike the perfect balance between the two vices of excess and deficiency is virtue. Finding the mean between the two is the right desires and behaviours, this is doing "good", this is achieving virtue. This pattern of choice determined by reason is achieved over a lifetime to live a virtuous life, meaning a happy life.

Just like everything in existence that serves a purpose, we serve a purpose. Humans are entitled to fulfill and serve our function well. And our function is to live by virtue, and only then our purpose have been fulfilled. Our happiness is a product of this fulfillment.

2. There is a positive relationship between virtue and happiness. To be happy, you need to be virtuous. The more virtuous someone is, the happier they get. Throughout your lifetime, you will need to perform habitual virtuous acts with constant practice, in which true happiness will be gained. Permanent inbred character traits, which can be dispositions of an individual, has to be developed overtime to be virtuous.

To learn to be virtuous, it requires habits of feelings and actions, something you are accustomed to do. It is a kind of firmly fixed and established dispositions of a character, a person’s inherent qualities of mind and character. Ethical virtues are naturally acquired inborn, but it needs to be fully developed by exercising it overtime in a constant manner. To determine whether you’re being virtuous, you have to live human’s potential to the fullest, in correlation with happiness. According to Aristotle, virtue helps improve the quality of someone/something, ensuring something stays in the good state and makes it perform its function well, and in return providing happiness to people indirectly. To achieve happiness from being virtuous, you have to work towards to “mean” of virtues, which is equidistant from 2 extremes. For example in generosity, you cannot be recklessly over-generous, but at the same time you cannot be selfish and greedily self-indulgent.

Virtues and happiness therefore have great relations and correspond with each other with a mutual connection.

3. To define a good life, it may mean living under no poverty, a wealthy and successful life with a good job. But it may mean the life was achieved from unrighteous deeds eg. Black market or drug dealing or pimps. A bad person can live a good life, if a good life means living a happy life as a bad person. They may find happiness in other forms and it does not necessarily relate with being virtuous. Their definition of a good life has nothing to do with being virtuous. Therefore they may still live a happy life or a good life without virtue at all.

A virtuous person can live a terrible life eg. Martin Luther King, put in jail for many years. Though they may live a terrible physical life, it does not necessarily mean that they are not happy. They have internal happiness even though they may suffer in the physical realm. This person may live a virtuous life however, if the person still and yet does not feel fulfilled by doing so, then the person may feel unsatisfied with their life they have lived. They may feel their life's purpose has not been met by living a virtuous life because their definition of a good life may not concern with being virtuous.

Living a good/happy life is subjective and it may differ from individuals. Therefore, even a virtuous person may not live a good life because their purpose of life does not equal to Aristotle's point of view of a good/happy life.

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