DELIBERATION AND HAPPINESS ACCORDING TO ARISTOTLE'S NICOMACHEAN ETHICS

Abstract

This article seeks to demonstrate how deliberation influences a happy life according to Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. To do this, it was necessary to investigate the philosopher's understanding of happiness, the human soul and its respective parts, identifying in which of them deliberation occurs, and only then demonstrate what it is, and how it contributes to a happy life. It is then concluded that deliberation is an important human capacity, present in the rational calculative part of the soul, through which man calculates, investigates, about things that can be done by him, things that although they happen in the same way, their outcome can vary, occurring in different ways. Finally, it can be seen that the man who deliberates must seek to weigh up the different alternatives available to him, as well as evaluate the pros and cons of his possible decision in the best way, in order to achieve moral deliberative excellence and consequently happiness.