Aristotele V Sartre Essay - 2122 Words

Does human nature really exist? Is there such thing as life purpose? And how is happiness achieved? These are some of the question that has been puzzling philosophers since the beginning of time. In this essay I am going to explain how the Greek philosopher Aristotle and the more contemporary French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre related to these questions. Let’s begin with discussing human nature. The concept itself is believed to have originated with Greek philosophers such as Socrates and Plato who first introduced the idea of ‘forms’ (by form they referred to the essences of all objects, the very thing that defines them, humans included, and without which the object in question would and could not be what it is) and linked that†¦show more content†¦A God which is immaterial, infinite, eternal and the essence of all forms. The beginning of all causes (hence the ‘Unmoved’ reference). And although some of his view were later on shared by so me on the major monotheistic religions such a Christianity and Judaism, he did not believe that God was involved with the affairs of humans but was merely an observer of creation and therefore of itself. â€Å"But virtue, like Nature itself, is more accurate and better than any art; virtue therefore will aim at the mean; - I speak of moral virtue, as it’s moral virtue which is concerned with emotions and actions, and it is these which admit of excess and deficiency and the mean. Thus it is possible to go too far, or not go far enough, in respect of fear, courage, desire, anger, pity and pleasure and pain generally, and the excess and the deficiency are alike wrong; but to experience these emotions at the right times and on the right occasions and towards the right person and for the right causes and in the right manner is the mean of the supreme good, which is characteristic of virtue.† (Aristotle) â€Å"Genuine happiness lies in action that leads to virtue, since this alone provides true value and not just amusement.† (Aristotle) â€Å"†¦ we always desire happiness for its own sake and never as a means to something else, whereas we desire honor, pleasure, intellect and every virtue, partly for their own sakes (for we should desire them independently of what might result from them)but