Aristotle's Virtue Theory
Aristotle was very clever philosopher. He was a master of the arts including: biology, botany, chemistry, ethics, history, logic, metaphysics, rhetoric, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, physics, poetics, political theory, psychology, and zoology. y. The greek word eudaemonia means "human flourishing or prosperity". Aristotle a greek philosopher came up with the theory of a eudaemonic life. He imagined a person with a eudaemonic life would always know what to say, diffuse a tense situation, deliver tough news gracefully, confident without being arrogant, brave but not reckless, generous but never extravagant. Aristotle believed that people who led a eudaemonic life were rare but they existed. He described them as virtuous. Aristotle thought that if we focus on being good people our actions would follow effortlessly. He believed that virtue was the midpoint between two extremes (or vices), he called it the golden mean. He believed leading a eudaemonic life did not mean being reckless he thought it meant being thoughtful. Here is an example: if you saw a old woman being mugged and you wanted to stop the mugger you would look at both you and the mugger's strengths and weaknesses and if you could not handle the situation you would call an authority who could handle the situation better than you. That is what Aristotle thought courage was. He believed that every valued trait had a golden mean and two vices.
Buddha's Theory of Happiness
The Buddha means enlightened one or the teacher. He was born with the name Siddhartha. His father was the king in the 6th century B.C. in modern day Nepal. The tribe that his father ruled was known to be economically poor. A holy man prophesied good things to happen to Siddhartha: that he would either be a great king or military leader or he would be a great spiritual leader. Siddhartha's father the king tried to keep his son from seeing the miseries and suffering of the world he built a palace just for Siddhartha to shelter him from knowledge of religion and human hardship. When the prince was in his late 20's he ventured beyond the palace walls and was quickly confronted with the reality's of the world. He saw a very old man and Siddhartha's charioteer explained that all people grow old. He took more and more trips and in those trips he saw a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic which means a person who practices religion with extremities. When Siddhartha became 29 he left his wife and son to lead a religious life and to try to relieve the world of the suffering that was happening. He fasted, meditated, for a long time hoping to find enlightenment. After a month of meditating under a tree it came to him: Nirvana. According to the Buddha nirvana means a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism. He thought to be enlightened you needed to get rid of desire. To get rid of desire he invented something called the eightfold path. The eightfold path was a way to live that would abolish desire. Here are the steps: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The eightfold path was used by the Buddha and others. Now the Buddha instead of being perceived as a teacher, people thought that he was an incarnation of Vishnu