Question

philosophy question (use 3-5 sentences to answer)

Aristotle's theory of happiness involves an end goal, or human telos called eudaimonia. Existentialists, like Jean Paul-Sartre, have a different conception of human life than eudaiminists like Aristotle. Define existentialisam and explain one main difference between Sartre's and Aristotle's view of the human telos?

Answer 1

Jean Paul Sartre suggests that human beings are condemned to be free and that thrown in a world they need to make conscious choices to create meaning and find their purpose of their lives. This would mean it’s not one’s pre-existing conditions that matter but it’s one’s own efforts in finding meaning to one’s life that’s very important. The difference between Aristotle and Sartre is that while the former places great emphasis on virtues or characters in determining the virtuous actions and sees it more positively, while the latter sees life very negatively with full of problems and anguishes. This would mean that human beings wouldn’t be able to easily achieve the end goal happiness because they would be constantly pulled down by the issues they face.

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