True happiness flows from the possession of wisdom and virtue and not from the possession of external goods. – Aristotle, Politics
I promise I will get back to explicating Aristotle’s understanding of metaphysics as the love of wisdom. However, I recently attended a lecture by Dr. Arthur Brooks (former president of the American Enterprise Institute and Professor of Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School) on the topic of happiness. Dr. Brooks beautifully and elegantly laid out the significant factors that aided and developed human happiness. As a sociologist, he presented his case with support from studies and statistics and laid out the science of human happiness. Further, Dr. Brooks explained the elements that go into a life of deep and long-lasting happiness. It was a well-attended lecture and Dr. Brooks said many important things. At the end of the presentation, however, I realized that Dr. Brooks never actually gave the definition of happiness. So, during the question and answer period, I asked him what his definition of human happiness is. He gave me a wry smile, made a few jokes about the difficulty of finding such an answer, and then answered the question in terms of Aristotle’s concept of eudaemonia and Thomas Aquinas’ explication of the idea (I’ll explain eudaemonism below). Of course, I perked up at his answer, and although the concept of eudaemonia is not new to me, Dr. Brooks helped me to think about it new ways.
As someone deeply interested in the nature of reality, I wondered if there was a connection between a correct understanding of reality, or being, and human happiness? So, after the lecture, I began to think about the connection between metaphysics, wisdom, and happiness, and what that might mean for human flourishing. What, if any, is the connection between metaphysics, the pursuit of wisdom, and happiness? What have the great philosophers said about the intersection of these topics and are they relevant to us in our own time and place? As a philosopher, I began to wonder—could a right understanding of reality promote and lay the intellectual groundwork for individual happiness and the betterment of society as a whole? If one were to have a better grasp of the truth of things and the world around them, would they then be able to live a more meaningful, significant, and purposeful life? How does one integrate these concepts? Fortunately for us, many excellent thinkers throughout history have said important things about the connection between philosophy, wisdom, and happiness. It will take some time, and many posts, but I hope to ultimately (and in various ways) make the connection between Aristotle’s definition of philosophy as the love wisdom, the importance of first principles, and human happiness. The following are some general thoughts and I hope to tie these ideas into my future posts as I explicate Aristotle’s conception of metaphysics as wisdom. What might happiness actually be and how is that tied to wisdom?
Happiness, like most other words, has different meanings and here we will focus on two of them. One is psychological or having to do with a state of mind or a pleasurable experience. This is the kind of contentment when one receives something desired. It is a pleasurable experience and often fleeting. Aristotle never denies that pleasurable experiences, if they are achieved in the right way and the right amount, have a certain kind of benefit to one’s well being. He also indicates that a certain amount of good fortune in life is helpful. But in each and every case, this kind of happiness is psychologically experiential, temporary, impermanent, and provisional. The other is based on what classical philosophers call eudaemonia or eudaemonism.
Eudemonia is the classical Greek word for happiness. Eudemonism is the study of the kind of happiness that is deeply significant and enduring. Although Plato had significant things to say about happiness, the concept of eudaemonia is attributed to Aristotle, since he was a strong advocate of the idea. Aristotle argued that the life of reason will lead to the best well balanced, meaningful, and happy life. He believes that thoughtful reflection and careful analysis will guide one to the most beneficial pleasures which will augment the balanced contemplative life. Eudaemonism, then, is the idea that the life of reason and careful analysis is the best path for happiness and self-fulfillment—it is human flourishing through the right use of reason. Also, remember, Aristotle was the great philosopher of balance and consonancy. For example, he was neither an ontological materialist nor a pure immaterialist as both belong together in the unity of life. There are harmony and agreement among the components of a well-lived life. He did not deny that a certain amount of life’s legitimate needs must be attained. Everyone needs food, clothing, shelter, etc. Nonetheless, eudaemonism teaches that the best approach to a meaningful existence also attends to the life of the mind and reason. Through reason, one can achieve the deepest and most long-lasting form of happiness because it attends to both the mind and body—not just the body alone.
Such a definition of happiness, then, as understood as eudaemonia, includes the moral and ethical dimension of life. Many philosophers speak about happiness as a life well lived. It refers to one’s whole life, a kind of deep and significant happiness which is the product of careful reasoning about life’s ultimate ends and then integration of virtue—the habit of right desire to achieve those ends. As the philosopher, Mortimer Adler explains, in this sense, it is not about an experience or something we can feel. It can be said that one is becoming happy or that one is on the path to happiness. Only when your life is over can someone else commenting on your life declare that you had lived a good life and can be described as a person who had achieved happiness. A happy life is a life which has a good ending. This is why wisdom teaches us to think carefully about the first principles of the world around us and what happiness means as the end, purpose, and final cause of our lives.
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