{"id":74541,"date":"2022-07-22T16:24:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T20:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=74541"},"modified":"2022-08-05T15:47:54","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T19:47:54","slug":"the-goal-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/","title":{"rendered":"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What’s the goal of life? Did Aristotle get it right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aristotle spent a lot of time thinking about life and its ultimate goal. He considered what we do and why we do it. He concluded that a good life is a happy life\u2014and a happy life is a good life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read more to better understand Aristotle’s view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Goal of Life<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Happiness, says Aristotle, is the goal of life. He arrives at this conclusion by examining the nature of human action. Aristotle claims that the purpose of all human actions is achieving some kind of good<\/strong>\u2014that is, we do things because we think they are the \u201cright\u201d or \u201cbest\u201d thing to do in a given circumstance. However, these \u201cgoods\u201d exist in a hierarchy: If the reason we do action A is so that we can then do action B, it follows that action B is better than action A\u2014action A is just a means to an end. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Lina works at a shoe store. The reason she works there is so she can pay her rent. Therefore, paying rent is a higher good for Lina than working at a shoe store. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aristotle concludes that the top of the hierarchy of \u201cgoods\u201d is a means that is also<\/em> an end\u2014something that we want for its own sake. This ultimate good, he argues, is happiness. <\/strong>Since happiness is the highest good, the reason for all action inevitably leads back to it. If you ask someone why they want to be happy, they can\u2019t and won\u2019t provide another, greater reason. Because happiness is the ultimate good, it follows that a good life is a happy life and vice versa. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Lina wants to pay rent because she wants a place to live. She wants a place to live because it provides her with safety and shelter. She wants safety and shelter because it allows her to live a happier life. She wants a happy life for its own sake, not because it will get her something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Shortform note: \u201cHappiness\u201d is the common translation of the Greek \u201ceudaimonia,\u201d though eudaimonia doesn\u2019t perfectly match a modern conception of happiness<\/a>. Instead, eudaimonia represents a sort of flourishing\u2014a life well-lived. It\u2019s not a temporary emotion, but rather a long-term sense of contentment or purpose.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychology and Aristotelian Happiness<\/a><\/strong>

Modern psychological research supports the connection between doing things for their own sake and living a happy, fulfilling life<\/a>. In Flow<\/em><\/a>, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi claims that a major component of happiness is \u201cautotelic\u201d activities<\/a>: things we do for their own sake because we get some kind of enjoyment or satisfaction out of them. However, while Aristotle argues that virtuous activities like acting ethically are the only truly<\/em> autotelic acts (a point that we\u2019ll discuss later in the guide), Csikszentmihalyi argues that many different activities (chess, running, dancing, and so on) can be autotelic\u2014as long as you enjoy that activity for its own sake.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s the goal of life? Did Aristotle get it right? Aristotle spent a lot of time thinking about life and its ultimate goal. He considered what we do and why we do it. He concluded that a good life is a happy life\u2014and a happy life is a good life. Read more to better understand Aristotle’s view.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":74544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,21,9],"tags":[707],"class_list":["post-74541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethics","category-philosophy","category-psychology","tag-nicomachean-ethics","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Goal of Life (According to Aristotle) - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Aristotle argued that a good life is a happy life. He concluded this by looking at what we do and why. Here's his view on the goal of life.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Aristotle argued that a good life is a happy life. He concluded this by looking at what we do and why. Here's his view on the goal of life.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-22T20:24:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-05T19:47:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Whitworth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\"},\"headline\":\"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle)\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-22T20:24:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-05T19:47:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/\"},\"wordCount\":511,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Nicomachean Ethics\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Ethics\",\"Philosophy\",\"Psychology\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/\",\"name\":\"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle) - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-22T20:24:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-05T19:47:54+00:00\",\"description\":\"Aristotle argued that a good life is a happy life. He concluded this by looking at what we do and why. Here's his view on the goal of life.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"description\":\"The World's Best Book Summaries\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Shortform Books\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":74,\"caption\":\"Shortform Books\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13\",\"name\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elizabeth Whitworth\"},\"description\":\"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.\",\"sameAs\":[\"rina@shortform.com\"],\"award\":[\"Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)\",\"Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)\",\"Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)\",\"Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)\"],\"knowsAbout\":[\"History\",\"Theology\",\"Government\"],\"jobTitle\":\"Senior SEO Writer\",\"worksFor\":\"Shortform\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle) - Shortform Books","description":"Aristotle argued that a good life is a happy life. He concluded this by looking at what we do and why. Here's his view on the goal of life.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle)","og_description":"Aristotle argued that a good life is a happy life. He concluded this by looking at what we do and why. Here's his view on the goal of life.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/","og_site_name":"Shortform Books","article_published_time":"2022-07-22T20:24:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-05T19:47:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Elizabeth Whitworth","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elizabeth Whitworth","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/"},"author":{"name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13"},"headline":"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle)","datePublished":"2022-07-22T20:24:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-05T19:47:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/"},"wordCount":511,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png","keywords":["Nicomachean Ethics"],"articleSection":["Ethics","Philosophy","Psychology"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/","name":"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle) - Shortform Books","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png","datePublished":"2022-07-22T20:24:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-05T19:47:54+00:00","description":"Aristotle argued that a good life is a happy life. He concluded this by looking at what we do and why. Here's his view on the goal of life.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png","width":1200,"height":630},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/the-goal-of-life\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Goal of Life (According to Aristotle)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","name":"Shortform Books","description":"The World's Best Book Summaries","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Shortform Books","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/logo-equilateral-with-text-no-bg.png","width":500,"height":74,"caption":"Shortform Books"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d2928cf6c11a69ced1491d6a5b74fb13","name":"Elizabeth Whitworth","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1fff9d65a52ac4340660218e7b63ee5e365cf08e7aa7adff79a0142cd4b96f84?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elizabeth Whitworth"},"description":"Elizabeth has a lifelong love of books. She devours nonfiction, especially in the areas of history, theology, and philosophy. A switch to audiobooks has kindled her enjoyment of well-narrated fiction, particularly Victorian and early 20th-century works. She appreciates idea-driven books\u2014and a classic murder mystery now and then. Elizabeth has a Substack and is writing a book about what the Bible says about death and hell.","sameAs":["rina@shortform.com"],"award":["Contributions to joint task force efforts (FBI)","Contributions to Special Operations Division (DOJ & DEA)","Efforts to fight the war on drugs (NSA)","Contributions to Operation Storm Front (US Customs Service)"],"knowsAbout":["History","Theology","Government"],"jobTitle":"Senior SEO Writer","worksFor":"Shortform","url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/author\/elizabeth\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/destination-goal-journey-summit-peak.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74541"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74670,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74541\/revisions\/74670"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}