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eudaemonism

 
Dictionary: eu·dae·mon·ism  eu·dai·mon·ism or eu·de·mon·ism (yū-dē'mə-nĭz'əm) pronunciation
also n.
A system of ethics that evaluates actions in terms of their capacity to produce happiness.

eudaemonist eu·dae'mo·nist n.
eudaemonistic eu·dae'mon·is'tic or eu·dae'mon·is'ti·cal adj.

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In ethics, the view that the ultimate justification of virtuous activity is happiness. Virtuous activity may be conceived as a means to happiness, or well-being, or as partly constitutive of it (see teleological ethics). Ethical eudaemonism should be distinguished from psychological eudaemonism, which holds that happiness is the ultimate motive of virtuous activity.

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Philosophy Dictionary: eudaimonism
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Ethics as based on the Aristotelian notion of eudaimonia or human flourishing. While closely allied to virtue ethics, the approach is different when the Greek equation between acting virtuously and flourishing is broken. Eudaimonism can also vary in so far as different conceptions arise of what it is to truly flourish. Thus the Cyrenaics stress sensual pleasure; the Stoics place emphasis on detachment from worldly goods, such as health and friendship; Aquinas puts more emphasis on happiness as the eternal contemplation of God; and so on.

Obscure Words: eudaemonism
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the theory that the highest ethical goal is happiness and personal well-being
 
 
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eudemonic(s)
utilitarianism
Summum bonum

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Philosophy Dictionary. The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Copyright © 1994, 1996, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Obscure Words. © 2008 by Michael A. Fischer http://home.comcast.net/~wwftd Read more