Happiness is an important part of modern society, we all want it and spend a great deal of our time engaging in activities that we assume will bring it to us at some point in the future, even if the experience isn’t immediate. In fact, if you ask many people what they want from life, instead of mentioning success in their chosen career, a particular family status or the sort of place they hope to be able to live, its quite common to hear people say, “I just want to be happy”. This should come as no surprise: it’s the `happy` times we always remember with most fondness, the moments when we are happy are always those people have little desire for change and tend to be satisfied with their current state -despite any money problems, relationship issues or anxieties they may have at the time, and its in our `happier` moments when we feel, even if not close to those around us, complacent and satisfied at the very least. But what is happiness and what does it actually do for us?

The ancient Greek philosopher is well known for pointing out the fact that, in nature, almost everything is a means to an end; things that have developed naturally have been designed to fulfil some unique purpose, they are a means to an end: wings have the purpose of letting things fly, fangs designed perfectly for tearing into meat, a proboscis facilitates its owner with the ability to suck nectar from flowers, sexual organs allow a species to reproduce, and so on. This same rule applies to our desires as humans; the things we wish to obtain in life, both physical and phycological, are also means to some specific end. Most of the things that humans strive for are, in fact, completely worthless on their own. Money being a perfect example of this: owning a big house, making more friends, reaching a higher social status or being able to do more enjoyable activities are some of the end goals that money can be used as a means to achieve in our modern society.  On its own, however, money is nothing more than pieces of paper, small metallic circles or a number on a bank balance.

Happiness in its self doesn’t seem to have an end goal though. If someone asks you why you want to be happy, the question would seem completely ridiculous. Everyone wants to be happy, just because. Therefore, when we look at nature from a means to ends perspective, being happy is the end goal of human life, there’s no reason for it, its just something that we are all striving for and it is the motive behind everything we do. So according to Aristotle, those people who say that their aim in life is to “be happy” have hit the nail on the head, they aren’t confusing the acquisition of material goods, social recognition or a high status in society with the underlying objective they are all standing for. Nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that Aristotle wouldn’t have said that our end goal is to achieve a `happy life`, not exactly. The life we all want in Aristotle’s eyes is a `eudemonic` life.

The concept of eudemonia will be familiar to anyone who has studied or encountered ancient Greek texts is familiar with the culture of this ancient society. To everyone else, however, it is probably an alien idea. When looking for a translation for this adjective, `happiness` is probably the first thing one will come across and thus may wonder why on earth it is necessary to even make the effort to differentiate these terms. But it is important to recognize that Greek `eudemonia` is rather different to our contemporary understanding of happiness, so much to the point where many people find that referring to ``eudemonia` as happiness (in a modern sense) is to completely disregard the concept it defines.

This is because the word `happiness` often congers up thoughts of sipping cocktails on a beach, curling up on the sofa in front of an open fire in our little countryside cottage, strolling out onto a sun killed balcony in the morning before jumping into an infinity pool that overlooks the Mediterranean sun or maybe just laying back with a box of chocolates and enjoying a movie in the evening with good company. The concept of happiness we have today is closely linked to other ideas like cosiness, relaxation, familiarity, comfort, safety and tranquillity. Winning the lottery, coming from a wealthy family or earning a very high wage are perceived as direct ways of achieving happiness as they provide us with security and the freedom to acquire most of the goods we desire as an when we want them.

Eudemonia presents a very different idea or `happiness` and is often translated as `fulfilment` or `human flourishing`. This is because one cannot achieve a state of eudemonia by sitting back on their sofa all day watching TV, we cannot live a eudemonic life by coming from a wealthy background and spending our days enjoying epicurean pleasures without ever having to gain them, worry, struggle or fight for anything. No, eudemonia is all about reaching our full potential as humans, overcoming adversity, achieving objectives and living a generally complete life in which one has worked hard, made use of all their experiences -both good and bad- as well as achieving all of their goals and aims in life. A eudemonic life will not end with someone saying things like “I wish i…”, “I should have…”, why couldn’t I”… the eudemonic life is one in which the subject knows they have reached their full potential, that they have everything they should have and that, even if they did make any mistakes, they learned a valuable lesson from them, just as all of their suffering has served to teach them valuable lessons about life and themselves.

It seems peculiar that we still have this idea of happiness when, in the 21^st century, where most people in a first-world country have access to plenty of material goods, safety and comfortable living standards, yet at the same time depression, anxiety and general mental health problems are an epidemic. Most millennials nowadays have either experienced or come across mental health problems in close friends or family members, despite having been brought up in conditions that, to people from les privileged countries or other periods throughout history, would seem idyllic. This seems paradoxical to many people, so much so that its common to hear unhappy people or those who are suffering referred to as `ungrateful`, `self-cantered`, `careless`, `arrogant` and everything else under the sun for committing the crime of not recognizing how lucky they truly are. Is it not possible though, that the cause of these issues lye in our modern perceptions of life and happiness? Can all of these cases of depression, anxiety and low self esteem be the cause of selfishness, vanity and arrogance?