For example, courage would be the balance and moderation between excessive amounts, rashness and … The pursuit of happiness is an inalienable right in the American constitution. By virtues, Aristotle meant the act of achieving balance and moderation. The "pursuit of happiness," which is ambiguously related to happiness and equally relatable to the destruction of marriage and the family, is not as firm or well-grounded a natural right as the right to love ones own children in a practical and beneficial way. Request PDF | On Jul 3, 2018, Liezl van Zyl published Virtue and Happiness | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate by Mortimer J. Adler, Ph.D. We are all faced with having to choose between one activity and another, with having to order and arrange the parts of life, with having to make judgments about which external goods or possessions should be pursued with moderation and within limits and which may be sought without limit. Some Americans, including Thomas Jefferson and George Mason, incorporated the concept of the pursuit of happiness into man’s natural, or inherent, universal rights. Aristotle thought that the practice of virtues would equate to happiness, in the sense of being all you could be. And it was surely freighted with moral meaning too. Virtue is the Key to True Happiness We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Article: Overcoming Delusion: Freedom and the Pursuit of Happiness - 'We must recognize that when people are battling the terrorism of trauma, they … That […] One thing I have learnt when working and interacting with very senior, wealthy and influential people throughout the world however, is that success does not necessarily bring happiness. It probably suggested freedom of the individual and the social group; the right to be fulfilled in one's own way. In addition, Aristotle states, “if there are more than one virtue, in accordance with the best and most complete” (1098a18). This means that eventually there will be one virtue that is inclusive of all virtue and that displays an end, and this virtue will be in line with the self-sufficient and inclusive concept of happiness as the chief good. Pursuit of Happiness. He recognizes that the virtues are related to each other, but rejects the unity of virtue doctrine that says that there is only one virtue: phronesis. Happiness depends on the “education of desire” whereby the soul learns how to harmonize its desires, redirecting its gaze away from physical pleasures to the love of knowledge and virtue; Virtue and Happiness are inextricably linked, such that it would be impossible to have one without the other. The pursuit of happiness included civic virtue and even the hope of post-mortem bliss.