GLMX #177: Aristotle and True Happiness

In his classic titled, "How to Read a Book", Mortimer J. Adler summarizes the Greek philosopher Aristotle's views on happiness. He says: 
  
"Aristotle's definition of happiness is the happiness of the whole life both in the temporal and the eternal. Happiness is the whole of the good, not the highest of the good. It does not consist in self-perfection or self-improvement. For Aristotle, happiness is a quality of a whole life -- whole not only in a temporal sense, but in all the aspects of a life. A happy man is a man who puts it all together and keeps it together. This is the controlling insight of Aristotle's writings."
  
According to Merriam-Webster, happiness is: a state of well-being and contentment; a pleasurable or satisfying experience; it is the feeling of pleasure and enjoyment because of life.
 
If there is one thing that people desire in life, perhaps more than anything else, it is happiness. We know that money cannot buy happiness. Just recently, a Wall Street investor gave away his fortune of $800 million and then jumped from a building, committing suicide. 
  
Numerous books, television shows, radio broadcasts, articles, and studies have been done on how people can be happy. Some people say that happiness comes from having everything you want. Others say happiness comes from being in loving relationships. Still others say happiness comes from doing good. 
  
Aristotle, and other great philosophers of the past, spent much of their time thinking about the big questions of life. What is the meaning of life? What is man's purpose in life? How can man be happy in life? Where did man come from? Where does man go after he dies? 
 
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