Page 21 - GALIET OF BEAUTIFUL UNOIA AND EUDAIMONIA: ARISTOTLE IV

life, Plato’s spiritual and transcendental life and also living the creative and practical lives. The contemplative life that Aristotle suggests as the only means to attain true happiness seems too exclusive. I also believe that the type of contemplation he suggests, is for the sake of something else: knowledge with aims at finding the essence or truth in things. I can argue that there is another type of contemplation. The contemplation of life through the mastery of one’s talents into a fructiferous focused activity that seeks the good. To know oneself, to have mastery of an activity that we absolutely adore simply for its own sake and not for the sake of anything else, and not to harm creatures or beings, is indeed a beautiful life. I think, therefore, that the Aristotelian “golden mean,” a harmonious combination of the four lives, is essential to leading a flourishing life. As social, political and religious beings, we do need the appreciation and recognition of our fellow human beings, we do need to exercise virtue over vice, rationality over irrationality, however, an extremely rational life, without a healthy dose of the passions, seems fictitious and unnatural. I think the key is to find a harmonious balance between our higher nature and our lower nature and the four lives as observed by Aristotle. Some cultures find joy in their mythical past and ritualistic lives.
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