PLOTINOS COMPLETE WORKS , VOLUME IV

ANIMALS TERMED HAPPY 1019 FIRST ENNEAD, BOOK FOUR.ether Animals May Be Termed Happy
DEFINITIONS OF HAPPINESS.Aristotelian) ideal of living well

4The hapiness are (practically) identical. Shond hap.account, grant even to animals the prvilege of on that
ls the privilege of achieccount, grant even to animing happiness? Why might wev-not say that they liveeil. if it be granted them, in their lives, to follow course of nature, Without obstacles? For, if, to live well consist either in pleasure (pleasant passions, ás the Epicureans taught) ,,or in realizing one's own individual aim (the Stoic ideal), then this living well is, in either case, possible for animals, who can both enjoy pleasure d accomplish their peculiar aim.

Thus singing birds oy pleasure live a life desirable for them, if they en and sing conformably to their nature. if further we uld define happiness as achieving the supreme purpose towards which nature aspires (the Stoic ideal we should, even in this case, admit that animals share in happiness when they accomplish this supreme purpose. Then nature arouses in them no further desires
because their whole career is completed, and their life is filled from beginning to end.

WHETHER PLANTS MAY BE TERMED HAPPY
There are no doubt some who may object to our admitting to happiness living beings other than man They might even point out that on this basis happiness could not be refused to even the lowest beings, such as...