Philosophy & ThoughtGreek → English
Eudaimonia
/ˌjuːdaɪˈmoʊniə/noun
Human flourishing: a life going well as a whole, in the sense used by Greek ethics.
The Greek roots
εὖ
eu
well, good
δαίμων
daímōn
divine spirit
Literally: “good spirit”
The story of the word
To be eudaimon is, at the level of the parts, to have a good spirit attached to you, roughly what English means by born lucky. Aristotle then argued the luck out of it and defined eudaimonia as activity of the soul in accordance with virtue, over a complete life. Happiness is a poor translation for that, since a person can be happy for an afternoon and nobody is eudaimon for an afternoon.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → English
- First recorded
- 17th century
Same family
demoneulogyeuphoriapandemonium
In a sentence
Positive psychology borrowed eudaimonia to distinguish a meaningful life from a pleasant one.
You cannot buy eudaimonia in a weekend.