Aristotelian Happiness in Jane Austen

THE WAY TO HAPPINESS Jane Austen’s novels are most remarkable through the fact that, at least in certain instances and aspects – the ones I have endeavored to emphasize in the previous chapters – they represent pieces of literature perfectly illustrating great ideas of Aristotelian philosophy. Although it is not at all certain that Jane…

GOOD FORTUNE AND CONSTANCY On account of what has already been discussed in the preceding chapters, at least one basically important conclusion might safely be drawn in connection to the way in which Jane Austen and Aristotle regard happiness. Happiness then, according to them both, is something which we make and acquire for ourselves, through…

{jcomments on}{jcomments off} Friendship Alasdair MacIntyre perceptively observed about Jane Austen: “When Jane Austen speaks of ‘happiness,’ she does so as an Aristotelian.”[1] And as it is a well known fact that Aristotle held friendship as a crucial condition for happiness (“For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other…

Habit and The Contemplative Life In the previous chapters quite a number of things have been said about virtue: how it confers the truest kind of pleasure, how it is harmonious because it is the middle state between two or more extremes, and how, ultimately, virtue is sure to bring happiness to those who practice…

Proper Pride and Justice Having already established in the previous chapter the fact that Jane Austen – very much in the spirit of Aristotle and his “doctrine of the Mean” in tight relation to practical wisdom – cherishes throughout her novels the idea that “every impulse of feeling should be guarded by reason; and […]…

PLEASURE AND DUTY In a discussion either about the works of Aristotle, or those of Jane Austen, I find it crucial that a subject which appears to be so dear to both philosopher and writer – as I am aiming to emphasize further on in this chapter – be mentioned even from the beginning. I…

Untitled document PRACTICAL WISDOM IN DISCOVERING “THE MEAN” The ancient Greeks – and also Aristotle – are famous for their ideal of perfection which for them was represented by harmony, order, equilibrium. And they sought these values everywhere and in everything, whether in art, or in political societies, or in the characters of human beings…

My motives for attempting to write a study on Jane Austen, and moreover, on Jane Austen as seen from an Aristotelian perspective, will most probably seem odd at a first glance, as I am going to begin with a description of the modern society’s philosophy, which is best comprised in the word relative. Indeed, today,…