Thesis:
Aristotle argues that, although virtue is superior to all the other goods people may possess, external values, like health or money, are usually required to do noble acts. The philosopher also claims that happiness needs some kind of prosperity in addition.
Reasons:
Noble deeds are impossible or hardly feasible without involvement of additional resources, such as political power or friends.
It is not difficult to be happy in favourable circumstances. However, a man is unlikely to be happy in bad life conditions, and all the more so when he is facing harsh calamities.
People often misidentify happiness with good fortune exactly because prosperity contributes so much to happiness.
Analysis:
The arguments of Aristotle are correct in most points. He claims that virtue is pleasant in itself, but not self-sufficient: today we can still observe how difficult it is to do acts of charity if not provided with money, even with enough time and health. He is also right in asserting that living in bad circumstances, having no beauty, children or money at all can diminish our happiness: it is definitely extremely hard to preserve good spirits when our friends or relatives die. However, in my opinion, although these conditions hinder the feeling of happiness, they cannot stand in a way of being virtuous. Even possessing nothing, we can still be helpful to people: with a word of consolation or providing physical assistance. For example, we can help children in an orphanage either with large sums of money for food or clothes, or with just our care, attention or educative measures. And perhaps, these things may be even more important.
Passage
Yet evidently, as we said, it needs the external goods as well; for it is impossible, or not easy, to do noble acts without the proper equipment. In many actions we use friends and riches and political power as instruments; and there are some things the lack of which takes the lustre from happiness, as good birth, goodly children, beauty; for the man who is very ugly in appearance or ill-born or solitary and childless is not very likely to be happy, and perhaps a man would be still less likely if he had thoroughly bad children or friends or had lost good children or friends by death. As we said, then, happiness seems to need this sort of prosperity in addition; for which reason some identify happiness with good fortune, though others identify it with …