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Search results for epsilon,3404 in Adler number:
Headword:
*eu)daimoni/a
Adler number: epsilon,3404
Translated headword: happiness
Vetting Status: high
Translation: ['Happiness'] and 'happy'. Some of the contraries do not have intermediates; for example, for man illness or health, white and black;[1] but happy and unhappy do have intermediates. For if someone is happy, he is not unhappy; but if he is not happy, he is not necessarily unhappy. For happiness and unhappiness are not opposed without intermediate, since it is possible that someone, even being an excellent person, is not happy. And if he is excellent, he is necessarily not bad. For virtue and vice are not without intermediate. And the temperate person is not mad; but it is not the case that whoever is not temperate is mad.[2] Consequently, the things that are contraries in this sense are no longer useful for constructive reasoning and refutation.
But by interpreting the word according to its etymology we say that the excellent man is happy, and we interpret "the happy person" according to its etymology; for the name
eudaimon seems to signify the one who has a good [
eu] daimon/genius. In fact, if the soul of everyone is a daimon, as
Xenocrates thinks,[3] the person having a good soul would be happy. But the excellent man has a good soul. Therefore, the happy person is an excellent man.[4]
*eu)daimoni/a kai\ *eu)dai/mwn: ei)si/ tina tw=n e)nanti/wn a)/mesa: oi(=on tw=| a)nqrw/pw| no/son h)\ u(gi/eian: kai\ leuko\n kai\ me/lan. eu)dai/mwn de\ kai\ kakodai/mwn tw=n e)mme/swn. ei) ga/r tis eu)dai/mwn, ou(=tos ou) kakodai/mwn. ou) mh\n ei) ou)k eu)dai/mwn, kakodai/mwn e)c a)na/gkhs. ou) ga\r a)me/sws a)nti/keitai eu)daimoni/a te kai\ kakodaimoni/a, e)pei\ e)nde/xetai/ tina spoudai=on o)/nta mh\ ei)=nai eu)dai/mona. kai\ ei) me\n spoudai=os, ou)k e)c a)na/gkhs kako/s: ou) ga\r a)/mesa a)reth\ kai\ kaki/a. kai\ o( me\n sw/frwn ou) mai/netai: ou) mh\n o( mh\ sw/frwn mai/netai. w(/ste ou)ke/ti pro\s kataskeuh\n kai\ a)naskeuh\n ta\ ou(/tws e)nanti/a xrh/sima. metafe/rontes de\ to\n lo/gon kata\ th\n e)tumologi/an le/gomen, o(/ti o( spoudai=os eu)dai/mwn e)sti/, to\n eu)dai/mona metalamba/nomen ei)s to\n kata\ th\n e)tumologi/an lo/gon: o( ga\r eu)= to\n dai/mona e)/xwn shmai/nesqai dokei= to\ tou= eu)dai/monos o)/noma. ei) dh\ dai/mwn e(ka/stou h( yuxh/, kaqa\ *cenokra/tei dokei=, ei)/h a)\n eu)dai/mwn o( eu)= th\n yuxh\n e)/xwn: eu)= de\ th\n yuxh\n e)/xei o( spoudai=os: spoudai=os de\ a)/ra o( eu)dai/mwn.
Notes:
Alexander of
Aphrodisias,
Commentaries on Aristotle's Topica 175.14-21;30;176.11-15.
cf.
epsilon 3401,
epsilon 3402,
epsilon 3403,
epsilon 3405,
epsilon 3406,
epsilon 3408.
[1] White and black do not illustrate contraries without intermediates (what about gray?). In fact, Alexander says that if something is white, it is necessarily not black, but if something is not white, it is not necessarily black.
[2] This assertion has Stoic echoes: "they (sc. Stoics) say that every base person (
fau=los) is mad, since he is ignorant of himself and of his own affairs, which is madness (
mani/a)"
Stobaeus,
Eclogae 2.68.18-19, ed. Wachsmuth).
[3] This material (up to the end of the entry) =
Xenocrates fr. 81 Heinze.
Xenocrates (
xi 42), head of the Platonic Academy after
Speusippus, held that everything is pervaded by soul, and daimons occupied an intermediate place between gods and human beings.
[4] Alexander says rather, "the excellent man is happy"; as indeed the logic requires.
Translated by: Marcelo Boeri on 5 September 2002@11:22:21.
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