Plato’s Republic is a dialogue about the role of justice in the best human life. In the Nicomachean Ethics, named for his son, Nicomachus, Aristotle argued that a good life is one of virtuous activity in accordance with reason. His word for happiness or human flourishing, “eudaimonia,” has been adopted by psychologists who distinguish self-realization or “eudaimonic well-being” from “hedonic well-being” or the experience of pleasure.33 But what appears in this literature is a dismal caricature;
