TITLE:
How Is Happiness Possible?—Aristotle on the Unity of Contemplative Life and Virtuous Actualization
AUTHORS:
Rong Huang
KEYWORDS:
Happiness, Virtue, Contemplation, Wisdom, Good
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.11,
November
21,
2025
ABSTRACT: The central question of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is “How is happiness possible?” Aristotle’s fundamental answer is that happiness consists in an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. This paper contends that complete happiness consists in the unified activity of both intellectual and moral virtue. with its highest expression found in the contemplative life. By analyzing the concepts of “good” and “the highest good”, the study first establishes happiness as the ultimate end of human striving. It then distinguishes between intellectual and moral virtue, demonstrating that both provide indispensable foundations for happiness—moral virtue secures the mean and excellence in practical conduct, while intellectual virtue orients us toward the contemplation of truth, which represents the most self-sufficient and divine form of complete happiness. Ultimately, the paper argues that a happy life is realized through the integration of virtuous practice within the polis and the love of wisdom, achieving a unified perspective that bridges virtue ethics and intellectualism in Aristotle’s account of happiness.