Hughes: eudaimonia e arete

One of the first things we have to decide when trying to understand Aristotle   is how to understand his technical terms, and hence how to translate what he says into English. Passages that seem to make no sense at all using one translation of the key words can often seem perfectly clear if one translates differently. Here, at the very outset, we need to consider carefully how to translate two words which turn out to be key terms in the Ethics.

Eudaimonia is almost always translated as ‘happiness’, but this translation can easily give a misleading impression. ‘Happiness’ in English suggests a feeling of one kind or another, perhaps a feeling of contentment, or delight, or pleasure. Aristotle makes it quite clear that he does not have any such feeling in mind at all. At X, 7, 1177all he says that eudaimonia is achieving one’s full potential; and that surely is not simply a matter of feeling, even if to do so would be very satisfying. It is much more closely connected with what one has made of oneself and one’s life. Again, at I, 4, 1095a19 he says that at least everyone agrees that happiness is somehow ‘living well’ or ‘doing well’. In this spirit, I propose to translate the noun eudaimonia by ‘a fulfilled life’ or simply ‘fulfilment’, [21] and the adjective eudaimon as ‘fulfilled’. Even this is not quite right, and there are at least some places in which ‘living a worthwhile life’ might come closer to the emphasis which Aristotle is looking for. One might, for instance, want to say that to lay down one’s life for others or in order to defend one’s country is supremely worthwhile; but it would be stretching things to describe that action as fulfilling. Still, a translation more or less along these lines is recommended by the fact that it makes more sense of many of Aristotle’s questions and arguments, as I hope will become clear in the course of this chapter. [1]

The second word we need to look at is arete. Arete was used to refer to many different qualities. The skill of a craftsman is his arete; being resonant and in tune is the arete of a lyre because it makes it a good example of its kind. So arete is sometimes translated rather vaguely as ‘excellence’. Again, for someone to possess an arete is for that person to be good at something, so that the word is often translated as ‘virtue’, though not always in a moral sense. We might say of a footballer that he has the virtue of being strong in the air, or of a car that it has the virtue of being cheap to run. To do something kat’ areten (‘in accordance with arete), then, is to do it in such a way that one’s skill, or virtue, or good quality is expressed in the way it is done. Often the phrase simply means to do something well.

In the Ethics, Aristotle speaks in particular of two kinds of arete, distinguished by the fact that some belong to one’s moral character (for example, courage, or generosity), and others to one’s skill at thinking (such as being good at planning, or quick to grasp the point of something).

Different translators adopt different policies when coping with these complexities. Some will try, if it is at all possible, always to use the same English word for the same Greek word, even if it sounds a little strange on occasion, just so that the reader can easily tell which Greek word is involved. Others will use a range of words, depending on the context — ‘happiness’, or ‘fulfilment’ or even ‘human flourishing’ for eudaimonia; ‘virtue’, ‘excellence’, ‘skill’, ‘being good at’ for arete. I myself will adopt this second policy, but will point out the places where my choice may be especially controversial.