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The Ethics of Aristotle - Penn State Hazleton

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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Ethics</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Aristotle</strong>most prosperous may become involved in great misfortunesin his old age, as in the heroic poems the tale is told <strong>of</strong> Priam:but the man who has experienced such fortune and died inwretchedness, no man calls happy.Are we then to call no man happy while he lives, and, asSolon would have us, look to the end? And again, if we areto maintain this position, is a man then happy when he isdead? or is not this a complete absurdity, specially in us whosay Happiness is a working <strong>of</strong> a certain kind?If on the other hand we do not assert that the dead man ishappy, and Solon does not mean this, but only that one wouldthen be safe in pronouncing a man happy, as being thenceforwardout <strong>of</strong> the reach <strong>of</strong> evils and misfortunes, this tooadmits <strong>of</strong> some dispute, since it is thought that the dead hassomewhat both <strong>of</strong> good and evil (if, as we must allow, a manmay have when alive but not aware <strong>of</strong> the circumstances), ashonour and dishonour, and good and bad fortune <strong>of</strong> childrenand descendants generally.Nor is this view again without its difficulties: for, after aman has lived in blessedness to old age and died accordingly,many changes may befall him in right <strong>of</strong> his descendants;some <strong>of</strong> them may be good and obtain positions in life accordantto their merits, others again quite the contrary: it isplain too that the descendants may at different intervals orgrades stand in all manner <strong>of</strong> relations to the ancestors. Absurdindeed would be the position that even the dead man isto change about with them and become at one time happyand at another miserable. Absurd however it is on the otherhand that the affairs <strong>of</strong> the descendants should in no degreeand during no time affect the ancestors.But we must revert to the point first raised, since the presentquestion will be easily determined from that.If then we are to look to the end and then pronounce theman blessed, not as being so but as having been so at someprevious time, surely it is absurd that when he _is_ happythe truth is not to be asserted <strong>of</strong> him, because we are unwillingto pronounce the living happy by reason <strong>of</strong> their liabilityto changes, and because, whereas we have conceived <strong>of</strong> happinessas something stable and no way easily changeable, thefact is that good and bad fortune are constantly circling aboutthe same people: for it is quite plain, that if we are to dependupon the fortunes <strong>of</strong> men, we shall <strong>of</strong>ten have to call the35

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