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In terms of its etymology, eudaimonia is an abstract noun derived from the words eû (good, well) and daímōn (spirit or deity). [2]Semantically speaking, the word δαίμων (daímōn) derives from the same root of the Ancient Greek verb δαίομαι (daíomai, "to divide") allowing the concept of eudaimonia to be thought of as an "activity linked with dividing or dispensing, in a good way".
According to Aristotle, contemplation is the only type of happy activity in which the gods might be imagined to engage in. The intellect is the true self, and this type of happiness is the happiness most suited to humans, in that only humans possess both happiness (eudaimonia) and the intellect (nous). Aristotle also claims that compared to ...
In his ethical works, Aristotle describes eudaimonia as the highest human good. In Book I of the Nicomachean Ethics he goes on to identify eudaimonia as the excellent exercise of the intellect, leaving it open [citation needed] whether he means practical activity or intellectual activity. With respect to practical activity, in order to exercise ...
In Aristotle's psychology and biology, the intellect is the soul (see also eudaimonia). According to Giovanni Reale, the first Unmoved Mover is a living, thinking, and personal God who "possesses the theoretical knowledge alone or in the highest degree...knows not only Himself, but all things in their causes and first principles." [20]
According to Aristotle, the most prominent exponent of eudaimonia in the Western philosophical tradition, eudaimonia defines the goal of human life. It consists of exercising the characteristic human quality— reason —as the soul's most proper and nourishing activity.
Aristotle's term for the optimal state of the human being is eudaimonia (Greek: εὐδαίμονία). He gives various definitions and descriptions of eudaimonia, in the Nicomachean Ethics, the Eudemian Ethics, and in his Politics, among which:
(As emphasized by Aristotle, this requires his distinction between accidental causes and natural causes.) [8] According to Aristotle, when we refer to the nature of a thing, we are referring to the form or shape of a thing, which was already present as a potential, an innate tendency to change, in that material before it achieved that form ...
Eudaimonia is often translated to mean happiness, but some scholars contend that "human flourishing" may be a more accurate translation. [8] More specifically, eudaimonia (arete, Greek: ἀρετή) refers to an inherently positive and divine state of being in which humanity can actively strive for and achieve. Given that this state is the most ...