Blueprint to Happiness: Finding Happiness Through Friendship

Aristotle believed that friendship is a reflection of one’s own virtues. Also, that our happiness depends on the cultivation of virtue. Ever notice in more ways than one that our close friends have similar values and ways of doing things. This has something to do with us unconsciously seeking friends whom we deem as a good person. “Happiness depends on ourselves” according to www.pursuit-of-happiness.org under the philosophy of Aristotle, and “having good friends is a core value of gaining happiness for ourselves” he also mentions.

Friends that we have a reciprocated relationship with will never last because friendship is not about doing something for another person so in turn they can do for you. That kind of thinking is all wrong. Aristotle also mentions that happiness cannot be gained or lost in a few hours. That happiness that you may feel for about an hour after you and a friend have reciprocated each other’s skills for beneficial reasons will not last.

 If you think really hard about why your friends are important to you? You will see that the answer varies because that friend that you treasure most you love unconditionally for many reasons. Relationships or friendships can be described as feelings, emotions or a state of independent reason, but what will never change within you is your core self. Your core self gathers our deepest and most stable characteristics and use those as the principles we live with. In fact, both Wilson the evolutionist that wrote the book Humans In the Environment and the book happier by Ben-Shahar  would both believe that moral and altruistic acts cannot be developed from reasons such as gain or pleasure or in other words in a relationship where you scratch my back and I scratch yours.

In Aristotle’s own words he says “people who value honor will likely seek out either flattery or those who have more power than they do, in order that they may gain through these relationships,” written in a short reading called “Parallels Between the Science of Happiness and the Philosophy of Friendship”  by Aristotle. If you compare that same quote to that of this quote “on the surface we appear to be separate and independent. Yet under the surface we are linked together. Thus your happiness is inseparably linked to the happiness you create for others” found in the reading called “The Philosophical Basis of caring, Compassion, and Interdependence” found on www.pursuit-of-happiness.org you will see that both readings are agreeing that happiness comes from what you make of it but it should ultimately not be found through using others or staying to ourselves. Instead, we must help one another and build relationships that will last a life time because then we will truly understand ourselves.