Final answer:
Philosophy has long grappled with defining happiness, with thinkers like Aristotle placing virtue at its core, while hedonism emphasizes pleasure, including intellectual and emotional pleasures. Insights from figures like Boethius and Plato also complexify our understanding of happiness. Ultimately, happiness in philosophical terms is about aligning one's life with objective goods and virtues.
Step-by-step explanation:
Understanding the Source of Happiness
Exploring the source of happiness is a central concern in philosophy, transcending eras and influencing various schools of thought. In the provided options, (d) Aristotle argues that happiness is the ultimate good of human action and virtue is necessary for happiness is the declarative statement that best corresponds to historical philosophical positions. Aristotle's concept of eudaimonia, often translated as happiness or flourishing, is key to his ethical framework. According to Aristotle, achieving eudaimonia involves cultivating virtues which align actions with the purpose of human existence.
Philosophical approaches to well-being often center around pleasure, desire, or objective goods. Philosophical hedonism considers pleasure, including mental and emotional, as essential to a good life. However, philosophies like Epicureanism and utilitarianism add complexity to this view by advocating for pleasures that contribute to a meaningful existence rather than transient indulgence.
However, beliefs about happiness and well-being were not static and were interpreted differently throughout history. Boethius, during his transformational dialogue in 'The Consolation of Philosophy', was reminded that true happiness lies not in material possessions but in virtue and the divine. Plato and others have also contributed significant insights, stressing that a true understanding of concepts like goodness and happiness are part of an unchanging higher reality.
Hence, the quest for happiness is deeply intertwined with ethics, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics. It engages with the idea that to live well is to align one's life with certain objective goods and to cultivate the character in accordance with virtues.