ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concept of happiness, first by analyzing its role in the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. After a short review of how happiness is conceptualized in the Islamic intellectual history, it then focuses on the treatment of happiness in Miskawayh’s ethical treatise Tahḏīb al-aḫlāq. Miskawayh primarily engages with practical questions of how to live a good life and achieve happiness, aligning his outlook very much with Aristotle’s trajectory. While Miskawayh makes extensive use of Aristotelian writings, his underlying frame of mind is very much Platonic or Neo-Platonic. This chapter shows in detail how Miskawayh engages in harmonizing the various strands of conflict and contestation between Plato and Aristotle. Harmonizing here means that, for the most part, the varying opinions are transmitted and not omitted. Miskawayh assumes that the search for happiness is inherent to human life and is certainly understood by him as an attempt to strive for the divine. It should, therefore, not be surprising to find an outspoken religious narrative weaved into his philosophical discourse.
