SOL Search

['Happiness'] and 'happy'. Some of the contraries do not have intermediates; for example, for man illness or health, white and black;[1] but happy and unhappy do have intermediates. For if someone is happy, he is not unhappy; but if he is not happy, he is not necessarily unhappy. For happiness and unhappiness are not opposed without intermediate, since it is possible that someone, even being an excellent person, is not happy. And if he is excellent, he is necessarily not bad. For virtue and vice are not without intermediate. And the temperate person is not mad; but it is not the case that whoever is not temperate is mad.[2] Consequently, the things that are contraries in this sense are no longer useful for constructive reasoning and refutation.
But by interpreting the word according to its etymology we say that the excellent man is happy, and we interpret "the happy person" according to its etymology; for the name eudaimon seems to signify the one who has a good [eu] daimon/genius. In fact, if the soul of everyone is a daimon, as Xenocrates thinks,[3] the person having a good soul would be happy. But the excellent man has a good soul. Therefore, the happy person is an excellent man.[4]

Eudaimonia kai Eudaimôn: eisi tina tôn enantiôn amesa: hoion tôi anthrôpôi noson ê hugieian: kai leukon kai melan. eudaimôn de kai kakodaimôn tôn emmesôn. ei gar tis eudaimôn, houtos ou kakodaimôn. ou mên ei ouk eudaimôn, kakodaimôn ex anankês. ou gar amesôs antikeitai eudaimonia te kai kakodaimonia, epei endechetai tina spoudaion onta mê einai eudaimona. kai ei men spoudaios, ouk ex anankês kakos: ou gar amesa aretê kai kakia. kai ho men sôphrôn ou mainetai: ou mên ho mê sôphrôn mainetai. hôste ouketi pros kataskeuên kai anaskeuên ta houtôs enantia chrêsima. metapherontes de ton logon kata tên etumologian legomen, hoti ho spoudaios eudaimôn esti, ton eudaimona metalambanomen eis ton kata tên etumologian logon: ho gar eu ton daimona echôn sêmainesthai dokei to tou eudaimonos onoma. ei dê daimôn hekastou hê psuchê, katha Xenokratei dokei, eiê an eudaimôn ho eu tên psuchên echôn: eu de tên psuchên echei ho spoudaios: spoudaios de ara ho eudaimôn.

Alexander of Aphrodisias, Commentaries on Aristotle's Topica 175.14-21;30;176.11-15.
cf. epsilon 3401, epsilon 3402, epsilon 3403, epsilon 3405, epsilon 3406, epsilon 3408.
[1] White and black do not illustrate contraries without intermediates (what about gray?). In fact, Alexander says that if something is white, it is necessarily not black, but if something is not white, it is not necessarily black.
[2] This assertion has Stoic echoes: "they (sc. Stoics) say that every base person (fau=los) is mad, since he is ignorant of himself and of his own affairs, which is madness (mani/a)" Stobaeus, Eclogae 2.68.18-19, ed. Wachsmuth).
[3] This material (up to the end of the entry) = Xenocrates fr. 81 Heinze. Xenocrates (xi 42), head of the Platonic Academy after Speusippus, held that everything is pervaded by soul, and daimons occupied an intermediate place between gods and human beings.
[4] Alexander says rather, "the excellent man is happy"; as indeed the logic requires.

David Whitehead (modified translation; added note, x-ref, keywords; cosmetics) on 24 December 2002@09:14:55.
Marcelo Boeri (Corrected the Greek in note 1.) on 14 July 2003@16:22:13.
Catharine Roth (modified translation) on 23 November 2003@19:36:15.
David Whitehead (another keyword) on 2 January 2006@11:28:40.
David Whitehead (x-refs; tweaking) on 5 November 2012@08:54:03.
David Whitehead (coding and other cosmetics) on 22 February 2016@05:29:02.
Catharine Roth (modified translation) on 18 January 2018@01:23:44.
Catharine Roth on 18 January 2018@01:27:01.
Catharine Roth (added a note) on 20 January 2018@23:25:37.
Catharine Roth (tweaked translation) on 20 January 2018@23:32:02.
Catharine Roth (modified translation, added another note) on 21 January 2018@00:54:58.
Catharine Roth (cosmeticule) on 21 January 2018@00:56:45.

Suda On Line Search