Caríssimos,
Envio uns trechos do livro 1 do Ética a Nicômaco para que vocês possam degustar:
To judge from the lives that men lead, most men, and men of the most vulgar type, seem (not without some ground) to identify the good, or happiness, with pleasure
mass of mankind are evidently quite slavish in their tastes
People of superior refinement and of active disposition identify happiness with honour
men seem to pursue honour in order that they may be assured of their goodness (…)(and) on the ground of their virtue
The final good is thought to be self-sufficient
The self-sufficient we now define as that which when isolated makes life desirable and lacking in nothing; and such we think happiness to be. (…) Happiness, then, is something final and self-sufficient, and is the end of action
no function of man has so much permanence as virtuous activities. (The happy man) for always, or by preference to everything else, he will be engaged in virtuous action and contemplation, and he will bear the chances of life most nobly and altogether decorously, if he is ‘truly good’ and ‘foursquare beyond reproach’
Since happiness is an activity of soul in accordance with perfect virtue, we must consider the nature of virtue; for perhaps we shall thus see better the nature of happiness
