Happiness as Actuality in Nicomachean Ethics: An Overview

This is a study about the meaning of happiness (εὐδαιμονία) in Aristotles Nicomachean Ethics (EN). It is argued that εὐδαιμονία in EN means actuality and it has to be interpreted through the lenses of two metaphors used by Aristotle in EN 1.7 1098a21 and 10.6 1176a30: the perimeter of good and the imprint of happiness. To explain the meaning of happiness Aristotle first has to delineate the perimeter of good of human beings and he does that with the help of two criteria: the final end [τέλος] and the function of humanity [ἔργον ἀνθρώπου]. These two criteria are metaphysical concepts which describe the good as the final metaphysical aim of every person and the best every person can be. This metaphysical teleological aim is the actuality of the soul according with excellence. This is the perimeter within which Aristotle enquires about εὐδαιμονία--the good of humans. Remarkable in its erudition through detailed analyses and fresh approaches Sabous book offers a new reading of Aristotles inquiry on happiness based on only two interpretative metaphors. The whole architecture of Aristotles ethical theory is reconstructed on this basis. Its a book devoted to critically-minded students trained to penetrate the endless strata of surprising assumptions. --Valentin Muresan University of Bucharest Distinguished Research Fellow Oxford Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics Sorin Sabou is the Prorector of Baptist Theological Institute of Bucharest. He is the author of Between Horror and Hope: Pauls Metaphorical Language of Death in Romans 6 (2005) and The Cross to Rome (2014).