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Classical ethic ( & “happiness”): *
The Greek word for happiness is eudaimonia. Most Greek philosophers were eudaemonistic.
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Socrates.
According to Plato (see his Apology, Euthydemus, Meno) Socrates thought that all human beings wanted eudaimonia more than anything else, though he adopts a radical form, stating virtue is both necessary & sufficient for eudaimonia. These virtues are self-control, courage, justice, piety, wisdom & are crucial for the good & happy life.
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Plato.
Like most other ancient philosophers, Plato (see the Republic) maintains a virtue-based eudaemonistic conception of ethics. Happiness or well-being is the highest aim of moral thought & conduct, and the virtues are the requisite skills & dispositions needed to attain it. He argues for eudaimonia in a similar manner to Socrates, his master: eudaimonia depends on virtue. Virtues are states of the soul, a just person is one whose soul is ordered & harmonious, all its parts functioning properly to the person's benefit. The unjust soul, without virtues, is chaotic & at war with itself (even if he is able to satisfy most of his desires).
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Aristotle.
Aristotle likewise votes for eudaimonia ( see his Eudemian Ethics); for him eudaimonia involves activity, exhibiting virtue in accordance with reason. In his works, eudaimonia was used as the term for the highest human good. In his Nicomachean Ethics he says that everyone agrees that eudaimonia is the highest good for human beings.
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Epicurus.
Epicurus' ethical theory is hedonistic which is that pleasure is the only intrinsic good and that pain is the only intrinsic bad.