Aristotle and The Concept of Eudaimonia

Sheyla Baumworcel

Philosophers have long been fascinated by the concept of happiness and how to define it. Plato viewed happiness as the highest and ultimate aim of both moral thought and behavior. Aristotle, Plato's student, went further to define happiness as Eudaimonia or "the pursuit of virtue, excellence, and the best within us".  In this regard, Aristotle differed from his mentor in that virtue alone was not enough for happiness. For Aristotle, eudaimonia is not the fleeting happiness we experience. It is something deeper: the feeling of living the life I am truly meant to live, realizing the best I have within me. Eudaimonia is the difference between a moment of pleasure and a life with meaning.

Eudaimonia concerns individual happiness. According to psychologists Richard Ryan, Veronika Huta, and Edward Deci,

    "…well-being is not so much an outcome or end state, but rather a process of realizing or fulfilling one's daimon or true nature—that is, of realizing one's virtuous potentials and living as one was inherently meant to live."

According to Aristotle, virtue is a choice that we make and practice on a daily basis so that a virtuous attitude becomes a habit. Through practice, we discover the measure of virtue between extremes. For example, courage is the fair measure between madness and fear, justice is the fair measure between harshness and condescension, and so on.

Aristotle's doctrine of the "golden mean" suggests that moral virtues are found in the balance between extremes of excess and deficiency. For instance, in facing danger, cowardice (deficiency) and recklessness (excess) are both vices, while courage represents the virtuous middle ground. This balanced approach to virtue becomes habitual through consistent practice, ultimately leading to eudaimonia as a way of being rather than a temporary emotional state.

The starting point for this inquiry is asking ourselves what we believe to be good, or how we should live our lives. Under the concept of "virtue ethics," happiness requires the cultivation of moral character and the practice of virtues as ends in themselves, not merely as means to other goals. Virtue ethics, as developed by Aristotle and later philosophers like Rosalind Hursthouse, focuses on character rather than actions or consequences. In this framework, eudaimonia emerges from becoming the kind of person who embodies virtues like courage, justice, temperance, and wisdom.

To learn this fair measure, we need to live our experiences and activate our channels of perception. Joy occurs when a person experiences moments where they realize the power of their own being, whereas sadness occurs when this power diminishes and we become smaller.

Psychologists Alan S. Waterman and colleagues developed a questionnaire for eudaimonic well-being or ‘QEWB,’ to measure wellbeing in the context of eudaimonia.

Through these studies, we can learn how to experience eudaimonia. Here are a few ways to do so:

1.     Know who you really are

Self-discovery comes from meditating on your core beliefs, understanding your strengths and character traits, or reflecting on your personal development or your core values,

and

2.    Develop your unique potential to achieve your life goals

Once you have explored who you are, put that knowledge into practice as you work towards your significant life goals. Thus, a person who scores high on QEWB persistently and committedly strives to develop this self-knowledge towards achieving life goals.

The perception of the right measure requires many elements and a purpose: to act in the best way possible in order to collaborate with the collective and cause the greatest good and the least harm. The virtuous person is the one who consciously makes an effort and chooses to live without being selfish, while at the same time taking care of oneself to preserve one's own existence. Indeed, this would be the right measure, as Aristotle would say.

For example, in the area of education, where I have built my life story, when I plan my classes and deal with my students, I strive to find the right balance between authority and empathy. I must be firm enough to maintain discipline and ensure learning, and at the same time, be sensitive to the individual needs and challenges of my students. Perceiving this balance requires awareness, reflection, and the purpose of doing the greatest possible good to the class, promoting a fair and welcoming learning environment. As Aristotle would say, it is the virtue of the middle ground: acting with balance to benefit the collective without neglecting oneself—for example, knowing when to say "no" so as not to compromise one's mental health.

In conclusion, Aristotle's most powerful insight might be that happiness is not a trophy you win and put away on a shelf. It's more like dancing or singing—it only exists while I'm doing it. Every morning, I can choose to exercise my humanity to the best of my ability. Every interaction is an opportunity to practice virtues like patience, justice, or generosity. This means that even on difficult days, I can be on the path to eudaimonia if I am acting from my best self. Aristotelian happiness does not require that I always be smiling, but that I always be growing as a human being.

This reflection makes us realize that Aristotle does not offer a magic formula, but an invitation: to live consciously, choose virtues, balance different aspects of life, and understand that true happiness is an art that we practice day after day.

Bio

Sheyla Baumworcel, a professor, author, and speaker on  psychopedagogy specializing in neurolearning, cognition, psychomotricity. Author of The Brain That Communicates: Dialogues between Neuroscience and Different Types of Knowledge, she has contributed chapters in “Pedagogical Coordinator: Support for Acting in the School Reality” and "Early Childhood Education beyond Neuroscience" in the book, Entretecendo Saberes.

Sheyla works with children with learning disabilities and has written children’s books, Dicionário Amoroso de Valores and Livro da Vida: Think, Feel, and Get Emotional. She has also created training materials on emotions called Deck of Keys, Conversation Circle for children and Conversation Circle for teenagers.

As a speaker, Sheyla has addressed the Brain Connection Congress since 2018 and has also spoken at SIEEESP, Moonshot, Fly Educação, Reinventando a Educação, Eurekando and Mentor at the NGO Gerando Falcões. She has been awarded Special Tribute to Humanity by Brain Connection and Cap Sur L’Ecole Inclusive.

Photo Credit: Pixabay.