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Wellsprings
ethics

Eudaimonia

εὐδαιμονία

Not a fleeting good mood but a whole life that goes well — the flourishing every Greek ethics aimed at.

Also: flourishing · happiness · wellbeing · the good life

Eudaimonia is often translated as happiness, but it means something closer to flourishing or living well—the ultimate aim of human existence. Aristotle developed this concept most systematically, arguing that eudaimonia is the highest human good because we pursue it for its own sake, not as a means to something else. Unlike pleasure or honor, which we might want for other reasons, eudaimonia is complete and self-sufficient. It comes from fulfilling your natural function and developing virtue through practice and habit.

Achieving eudaimonia requires cultivating excellence across multiple dimensions of life. Aristotle recognized that human flourishing depends not only on the soul's virtues—wisdom, courage, and justice—but also on bodily goods like health and strength. This is why Aristotle held that *full* eudaimonia requires *some* external goods — friends, modest resources, the absence of catastrophic misfortune (NE I.8–10) — though not that the virtuous person must be wealthy or in perfect health. The *Stoics* rejected even this concession: for them virtue alone is sufficient for eudaimonia, and external goods are 'preferred indifferents' (`proēgmena`) that the sage may rationally prefer but does not need. The concept unified Greek ethics around the idea that the good life is concrete and achievable through human effort and practical wisdom.

Where this idea shows up

137 Greek sources·10 Jewish-canon citations

Where to read it