Book 1 / Chapter 10
Paragraph 2 - The Problem of Defining Happiness and Its Permanence
Explanation - Part By Part
"But we must return to our first difficulty; for perhaps by a consideration of it our present problem might be solved."
Here, Aristotle is signaling that he’s going back to a key issue he mentioned earlier. The "first difficulty" refers to the question of whether happiness (or a truly fulfilled life) can only be assessed after a person’s life has ended. He is suggesting that revisiting this problem might help clarify the current discussion about what it means to be "happy" and whether external life events (like changes in fortune) truly impact one's happiness. It's a methodical way of addressing the puzzle—going back to earlier points to untangle the argument.
"Now if we must see the end and only then call a man happy, not as being happy but as having been so before, surely this is a paradox, that when he is happy the attribute that belongs to him is not to be truly predicated of him because we do not wish to call living men happy, on account of the changes that may befall them, and because we have assumed happiness to be something permanent and by no means easily changed, while a single man may suffer many turns of fortune's wheel."
Aristotle is grappling with an idea that seems contradictory or puzzling ("a paradox"). The idea refers to the belief, possibly stemming from thinkers like Solon, that we can only declare a person truly "happy" after their life has ended—after we see how their entire existence played out, free from any unexpected changes that could tarnish their happiness. Aristotle finds this problematic because it implies that even when someone is happy during their life, we can't confidently call them happy just because circumstances might change in the future.
He points out the tension: happiness is meant to be something stable and lasting, something deeply tied to a person's virtues and character, rather than being easily undone by outside events or sudden misfortunes. Yet people's fortunes (their luck or external circumstances) fluctuate constantly, making it complicated to say definitively that someone is "happy" while they're still alive. By this logic, happiness would appear fleeting and uncertain, which clashes with the idea of it being something meaningful and enduring. Aristotle is questioning this view and calling attention to its contradictions.
"For clearly if we were to keep pace with his fortunes, we should often call the same man happy and again wretched, making the happy man out to be chameleon and insecurely based."
Aristotle is pointing out that if we define someone's happiness based solely on their changing fortunes or external circumstances, it would make their happiness as unstable and inconsistent as a chameleon shifting its colors. This would suggest that happiness is fleeting and unreliable, changing constantly depending on whether someone's luck goes up or down. Such a view would undermine the idea that happiness is something solid and enduring, which Aristotle believes it should be. Instead of tying happiness entirely to external changes, we need a deeper, more stable foundation for it.
"Or is this keeping pace with his fortunes quite wrong? Success or failure in life does not depend on these, but human life, as we said, needs these as mere additions, while virtuous activities or their opposites are what constitute happiness or the reverse."
In this part, Aristotle raises an important question: Is it wrong to constantly judge someone's happiness based on the ups and downs of their external circumstances (fortune's wheel)? He suggests that true happiness—or its opposite, unhappiness—doesn’t depend primarily on external successes and failures. Instead, these external factors are secondary or supplementary—they are "additions" to life, not its foundation.
For Aristotle, the core of happiness lies in how a person behaves and lives virtuously. It’s not about what happens to you, but about how you act and the quality of your moral character. In essence, he argues that external fortune may enhance or accompany happiness, but the real essence of living a happy life comes from engaging in virtuous activities (choosing and doing what’s good, just, and wise). This shifts the focus away from things we cannot control—like luck or external outcomes—and toward things we can control: our actions and moral integrity.