The author’s subject is the relationship between modern and ancient conceptions of happiness, a relationship that the author believes is deeply problematic. In order to present Aristotle’s argument cogently and to make a utilitarian bias as unobtrusive as possible, the paper examines the problem within Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics. The framing project of the Ethics is to identify the ultimate end of good or telos, which people should aim at for its own sake and not for the sake of anything further. Thinking that what Aristotle means by eudamonia is what people mean by happiness, however, raises some serious interpretive problems because it closes a cluster of questions about the relationship between virtue and happiness, which are very much open.
