According to Aristotle, our reason for existence is to be happy, in the fullest sense of the word—what the Greeks called eudaimonia. Hedonic pleasure is not enough to reach a state of flourishing: we must also live a life of virtue, and use all of our capabilities to their fullest. To live without virtue is to fail to reach our true purpose—like a

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Aristotle was interested in how we might be good, rather than know goodness. Thus when he taught ethics, his aim was to improve the lives of his pupils at a practical, everyday level. Like Plato, he saw the natural aim of human life, and the best condition of the soul, as eudaimonia, which is roughly synonymous with happiness, or more accurately ‘f

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