Reading Journal 1 (GB 2)

    Both manuscripts of an ancient philosopher and a Christian philosopher provoke inspiration to research what happiness really is and how one may possess it. Aristotle believes happiness to be the highest good a man can possibly achieve in his short lifetime and expounds on this subject in Nicomachean Ethics. He knows happiness is the end goal, and not the actions that lead to it: “So happiness appears to be something complete and self-sufficient, it being an end to our actions” (1097b20-21). A person finds happiness is the highest good, and the highest good is found within God when he reads The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius, bringing one to the stunning realization: “happiness itself is God” (Boethius 88). Aristotle considers happiness to come from our own personal actions, and Boethius treats happiness in the same manner by confirming that men pursue happiness at all costs. However, man mostly uses fragments of what they know to reach for this happiness and fails to achieve this end objective in the process. However, this pursuit does not end with happiness, as deemed by Aristotle, but actually stems into something more celestial, “men in the pursuit of happiness are actually in the pursuit of divinity” (Boethius 89). Therefore, a person’s ultimate goal does not stop at simply “happiness” but reaches beyond toward divinity.