In The Nicomachean Ethics Aristotle sests out to discover the good life for man: the life of happiness or eudaimonia.rnHappiness for Aristotle is the activity of the soul in accordance with virtue. Virtue is shown in the deliberate choice of actions as part of a worked-out plan life, a plan wich takes a middle course between excess and deficiency. This is the famus doctrine of the golden mean-courage, for example, ia a mean between cowardice and rashness, and justice between a man's getting more or less than his due. The supreme happiness, according to Aristotle, is to be found in a life for the few, and a secondary kind of happiness is available in a virtuous life of political activity and public magnificence.