- Aristotle takes on Solon, who says that only the dead are truly happy.
- Ugh, morbid.
- In more practical terms, perhaps what this means is that a person can't truly be called happy until his entire life has been completed and no further bad fortune can befall him.
- But there are some people who say that both good and bad things can happen to the dead. For whatever fortunes his descendants have, the dead person can feel.
- Aristotle isn't having any of this. He thinks it's too ridiculous that a person, who's been fortunate in life, should have to suffer for his descendants.
- He says that it's also strange to think that we have to wait until the end of a person's life to decide if he's been happy or not. It's as though all happiness can be erased by one disaster at the end.
- Aristotle says that this "perplexity" is brought about because of a tension between human works and activities motivated by virtue.
- When a person engages in virtuous activities, they're more lasting in the minds of the people around them, no matter what else happens to the person.
- And no matter how bad things get, a virtuous person will always be happy because of his blameless works.
- While Aristotle won't allow that small changes in fortune will make much difference in the life of a man, he does concede that large reverses in fortune can bash a person's overall happiness.
- However, a truly noble person will come out on top, virtue shining through.
- He would also never do anything base or horrible, so technically, nothing bad should really happen to him.
- There is one proviso, of course. If something truly, cosmically catastrophic were to happen (i.e. like what happened to Priam of Troy), he couldn't possibly be happy.
- At least not right away. It's possible that, even after a catastrophic event, such a person could recover his happiness. It would just take a really long time.
- So, to sum up: if a person lives a complete live in accordance with virtue and comes to his death in a reasonable way, he's considered happy or blessed.
- Score.
- But he's a blessed human being—which means that during his life, he may suffer some reverses of fortune.