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While a person's overall happiness is not directly measurable due to limitations in
neuroscience technology, this does not mean it does not have a real physical component. We
know that the neurotransmitter dopamine, operating along the mesolimbic pathway and
upon the nucleus accumbens, is involved in causing a human or animal to experience
happiness. If we were able to accurately measure the production of dopamine in various
parts of a person's brain, we would likely be able to definitively determine how happy the
person is. Happiness can be induced artificially with drugs, most directly with opiates such
as Morphine and Heroin, which block dopamine inhibitors.
Nevertheless, the exact chemicals and processes which cause happiness do not define
the concept of happiness, they simply describe its biological "implementation". We might
guess that other implementations are possible, even if they have yet to be observed in
nature.
It is possible, however, to describe what happiness is in biological terms. One such
attempt is referred to as Darwinian happiness. Darwinian happiness is based on the fact that
animals, due to their brains, are equipped with the propensity for both positive and negative
feelings and sensations. By understanding the underlying evolutionary background for how
these sensations arise, one may gain insight in how to ensure that the neurological processes
that add to a positive mood will tend to dominate.
Text 5. Virtue
Virtue (Greek αρετη; Latin virtus) is the habitual, well-established, readiness or
diposition of man's powers directing them to some goodness of act. (1) Virtue is moral
excellence of a man or a woman. The word αρετη is derived from the Greek Arete (paideia)
(αρετη). As applied to humans, a virtue is a good character trait. The Latin word virtus
literally means "manliness," from vir, "man" in the mas culine s ense; and referred originally
to masculine, warlike virtues such as courage. In one of the many ironies of etymology, in
English the word virtue is often used to refer to a women's chastity.
In the Greek it is more properly called ηθικη αρετη. It is "habitual excellence". It is
something practised at all times. The virtue of perseverance is needed for all and any virtue
since it is a habit of character and must be used continuously in order for any person to
maintain oneself in virtue.
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