eudaemonism

ethics

Also known as: eudaimonism, eudemonism

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July 23, 2026

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Eudaemonism is an ethical theory that defines the highest goal as happiness and personal well-being. In Aristotelian ethics, this concept is known as eudaimonia, which translates to human flourishing or living well.12

Unlike the modern understanding of happiness as a feeling of pleasure or contentment, Aristotle viewed eudaimonia as the ultimate human good, desirable for its own sake. He believed it involves the excellent performance of human beings' unique function: reason. Therefore, eudaimonia is achieved through rational activity in accordance with virtue. This flourishing is not a temporary state but an achievement over a complete life, requiring both intellectual and moral virtues cultivated through habituation and experience. Eudaemonism, along with virtue ethics, was revived in the mid-20th century as an alternative to action-based ethical theories.23

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Averroës
Contents and significance of works of Averroës
…Muslim, Averroës insists on the attainment of happiness in this and the next life by all believers. This is, however, qualified by Averroës as the disciple of Plato: the highest intellectual perfection is reserved for the metaphysician, as in Plato’s ideal state. But the Muslim’s ideal state provides for the…
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…Muslim, Averroës insists on the attainment of happiness in this and the next life by all believers. This is, however, qualified by Averroës as the disciple of Plato: the highest intellectual perfection is reserved for the metaphysician, as in Plato’s ideal state. But the Muslim’s ideal state provides for the…
Read More

eudaimonia
In the mid-20th century, eudaemonism, or the philosophical theory of human well-being, and virtue ethics were revived as sophisticated and psychologically more realistic alternatives to action-based ethical theories such as deontology and consequentialism (see also utilitarianism), each of which seemed to entail
Read More
In the mid-20th century, eudaemonism, or the philosophical theory of human well-being, and virtue ethics were revived as sophisticated and psychologically more realistic alternatives to action-based ethical theories such as deontology and consequentialism (see also utilitarianism), each of which seemed to entail
Read More

teleological ethics
Eudaemonist theories (Greek eudaimonia, “happiness”), which hold that ethics consists in some function or activity appropriate to man as a human being, tend to emphasize the cultivation of virtue or excellence in the agent as the end of all action. These could be the classical…
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Eudaemonist theories (Greek eudaimonia, “happiness”), which hold that ethics consists in some function or activity appropriate to man as a human being, tend to emphasize the cultivation of virtue or excellence in the agent as the end of all action. These could be the classical…
Read More