Plotinus on Happiness

Abstract

This paper explores Plotinus' criticism of Aristotle and the Stoics on happiness, and his ownPlatonic alternative account. It also seeks to show how Plotinus has appropriated elements of hisopponents' own views. For Plotinus, happiness is a sort of self-transformation in which oneidentifies with one's ideal intellectual self. The achievement of such an identification bringstogether, as for the Stoics and Epicureans, happiness and blessedness, although for Plotinus,blessedness is real immortality.