Thinking happiness through the event of death

Abstract

Based on a hermeneutic work of books i and ii of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, three central aspects are presented in this reflection on Aristotelian ethics from the analysis of the complex and thorny phenomenon of death. First, the question of happiness as the supreme good, the raison d'être of a great number of purposes that human beings pursue in their daily existence, is addressed. In a second section, virtue is presented as the action that the human being performs according to his reason, being virtuous in the face of death. From this perspective, some of the reflections are brought up to discuss the question of happiness and death. It is inferred that death can give fruitfulness and depth to the acts of our daily life in order to live well, to be well, to be happy, even in spite of the condition of vulnerability or fragility that death itself makes us live.