Aristotle, Happines, and Virtue

Once upon a time there was this guy named Aristotle. He was a pretty smart guy so people kept coming up to him and asking, “What’s the key to happiness?”  Aristotle thought about it and decided:

1.     Money, love, and “success” were not the greatest levels of happiness.

2.     Seeking personal Pleasure was also not the greatest happiness.

3.     The only way to achieve true endomonia (well-being/ happiness) is by achieving higher virtues through creative acts and reasoning.

Some external prosperity is required as well (starving would be kind of a distraction). Aristotle decided to achieve a virtue you need to find a true balance or middle ground between two extremes. It’s kind of like walking a tied rope through life (Too much or too little of something leads to an imbalance and imperfection). There are also different types of virtues to gain:

v Intellectual Virtue: Gained through experience and time

v Moral Virtue: Outcome of habit and practice

To achieve these you need to do the Right Thing in the Right Way at the Right Time for the Right Reasons.

Why is all this so important? Can’t I just play my Xbox orPS3 in peace and call myself happy? As it turns out, real happiness comes from fulfillment and meaning in life and lasts a lot longer than a couple hours playing a video game. Oh darn. This fulfillment comes from exercising a skill or power and using it. Thoughts and our ability to express them are what make us different from animals and find the greatest level of happiness when these are used to achieve the greatest effect.

So how do you make a habit out of gaining one of these new virtue thingys? You look at the nice Table of Virtue I made:

Excess	Balance	Deficiency
Too Honest: Offend people, Blunt, and Brutal. Simon Cowell	Honest, but kind and considerate of others	Lies, Manipulating, Deception, Hurts People
Connect to much, Suffer knowing others suffer, Depressed	Compassionate, Strongly Empathetic	Heartless, Indifferent, Apathetic, Cause Pain
Blindly Follow and Obey others, No Self-Will	Loyal within Reason	Betraying -Tiger Woods No one Trusts You
Overly Confident, Reckless, Self-Endangering –Wild Boys	Strong, Composed, Endearing, Courageous	Cowardly, Paranoid, Never Accomplish Anything
Accepting Wrongful Behavior Get Walked Over Complacent	Tolerant and Accepting, but also knowing where to draw the line	Intolerant Cause others Pain and Conflict Not Open-minded/ Ignorant
Too Patient Wait Forever Miss Out	Patient by using Good Judgment and Thought	Act too Soon Ruin Chances
Get tricked into giving too much End up with nothing	Generous	Stingy Cold Shrewd

So how do you gain a virtue if you’re stuck over in the left or right column? If you’re in the left column: You get uncomfortable and take a risk. If you’re on the right column: You lean towards the cautious side of life. You step out of your comfort zone or holdback depending on which column you’re in. It’s the only way to balance yourself out. By making it a constant habit and being mindful of these virtues you can then make them second nature.  

Now there are some people who say, “I can achieve a greater level of happiness by acting cheery and smiling a lot. I’ll fool others and eventually myself into thinking I am happy.”

 Knock it off. It’s really annoying.

Some people are oblivious and can’t see through the fake smile (mostly because some people are just that good at it –I’m looking at you Sagittarius), but for the most part people can read right through it. I feel sorry for those people. They make me sad. How messed up is it that our society is trying to condition us to fake emotions they approve of by hiding or denying other emotions they don’t? If emotions were a choice, we’d all choose to be happy. They aren’t. There is a logical, justified reason why someone is upset –usually because they’re lacking something in their life they want or need. Those reasons should not be held against them. We all suffer, we all feel pain, we all get depressed, and we’re all human. I see nothing wrong with wanting to end suffering, but covering it up and pretending it isn’t there Is Not Ending It. It’s ignoring a problem that should probably be looked at and treated like you would an infection. When you ignore an infection and pretend it isn’t there hoping it will go away on its own, it usually gets worse.

I think people are confusing Genuine Happiness with Toothpaste-Ad Happiness. If you look at history, none of the people we appreciate and acknowledge most today were ever that happy. That’s because they knew it’s not about “happiness” it’s about fulfillment.