Aristotle’s Advice For A Good Life Is Still Relevant Today
It destroys the internet memes that depress many and enables us all to be a personal success
Many minutes in your life blend together, but certain times you remember in detail, which never leave you. Mine was the day my mom died. Our entire family visited her at the hospital to say a last goodbye.
She was unresponsive by now.
I was the last in the room. After sitting in a chair wordless for a time, all I could get out was an apology. My final words were saying I was sorry for not being a better son or making more out of myself.
Obviously, death of a parent can make us all remorseful for not being a better son or daughter. But the feeling of living an unsuccessful life doesn’t require that sort of loss. It’s a daily nagging sensation for many.
So, I wasn’t surprised by a study from Harvard indicating young people 18 to 25 reported feeling worse off in “happiness, health, meaning, character, relationships, and financial stability,” than their elders in every age category. Innately, they weren’t living a good life.
Many point to the modern invention of social media as the cause. It puts incredible visions of interesting lives before our eyes, making the viewer feel lacking and smaller. However, the root cause predates social media.
In fact, Aristotle wrote about this thousands of years ago. In his opinion, the problem starts from a flawed vision of what a “good life” is and how to live it.
Redefining A Good Life And Excellence
Professor of philosophy Dr. Susan Sauvé Meyer explains Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics is a guide to living a good life. The philosopher even dedicates a word for this type of practice: eudaimonia.
While many translate this as happiness, Dr. Meyer says it’s better equated to “human flourishing.” She references this in her book How to Flourish, which summarizes Aristotle’s work in short form. Inevitably, a good life derives from practicing virtue and pursuing worthy goals.
In a podcast interview with Ryan Holiday, Dr. Meyer says the ancient Greeks often connected these goals and virtues with the term arete. While its base means goodness, the word often associates with excellence in serving a purpose. Now, this applies easily to things.
For instance, an excellent knife cuts well, while an excellent ship sails well, but applying this concept to a person…gets complicated.
Dr. Meyer explains in Plato’s Meno, Socrates asks the title character what’s virtuous or excellent, and he replies having lots of gold and silver. In other words, being successful. This sounds crazy, but it isn’t that far from what we do today.
We look at others that are more successful in money, achievement, relationships, or whatever flashes upon a screen, and see ourselves lacking. Those “stars” are serving a purpose larger than ours.
Aristotle saw those in his time doing the same thing. Arete for people involved leading the greatest armies, being the best poet, richest merchant, or most skillful politician.
In response, Dr. Meyer says Aristotle and fellow philosophers redefined arete.
Another View Of Success And How To Manifest Goodness
“One can do noble acts without ruling earth and sea: for even with moderate advantages, one can act virtuously.”
— Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics
Aristotle’s idea of arete applied to character, not the flashy trappings of success. Author and philosopher Massimo Pigliucci sums it up as being “the best human being you can be.” Obviously, this is better than the internet influencer meme of cars, money, and fame, but it’s a bit vague.
The philosopher did this intentionally because everyone’s concept of character could be a bit different. Furthermore, we must discover it ourselves by experience, which is known as phronesis.
But Aristotle gives us direction in our search. Namely, we need to find a mean between extremes, and practice to achieve this excellence of character.
The philosopher starts with the former, comparing it to athletic training. An athlete needs to eat. Yet, there’s a line where you’re consuming too much, or not enough. Ideally, there’s a mean between the two which is healthy. It also stretches to qualities.
Too much bravery makes you reckless
Too much self-restraint makes you boring
Too much good-humouredness makes you foolish
Similar advice is given by Daedalus to his infamous son Icarus before he takes to the air.
“Let me warn you, Icarus, to take the middle way, in case the moisture weighs down your wings, if you fly too low, or if you go too high, the sun scorches them. Travel between the extremes.”
While it’s not an exact mathematical formula for building character, it is a good rule of thumb to point you in a sensible direction. Although his second bit of advice is harder. It requires practice.
Building Character By Doing
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have these because we have acted rightly…We are what we repeatedly do; excellence then is not an act, but a habit.”
— Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy
Once you find your mean, Aristotle says you gain virtue and character by practice.
Think of it in terms of cooking shows. You can watch every television chef from Julia Child to Gordon Ramsay but if you never turn on your oven, can you really cook?
Building character requires the same. It’s also part of the foundation supporting that eudaimonia or human flourishing. While things demonstrate their arete by serving their simple purpose, for people, it’s much more complex.
Again, character and virtue are deeper than the narrow trappings of success Meno or YouTube influencers proclaim. It can’t be summed up with a number. Dollar amounts or millions of “likes” don’t equate to eudaimonia.
In trying to be “the best human you can be” frequently, you take on that quality, and innately you flourish. It’s a whole different way we can all be successful and experience that eudaimonia.
With this in mind, let’s go back to that study from Harvard and my final visit with my mom.
The Good Life Redefined
The 18- to 25-year-olds that reported feeling worse off in so many categories have a flawed vision of a good life. I know this personally. Because I suffered from the same thing, which manifested itself in my final words to my mom.
Sadly, it’s not unique. Aristotle and Plato noticed it in their community as well thousands of years ago. So, it’s likely a common human failing.
We conflate a good life with narrow success characteristics that can be measured in numbers, while true flourishing is much more complex.
In Aristotle’s opinion, we can all live a good life through finding a healthy mean between extremes that drive us, and practicing these character traits regularly.
Ultimately, this life can’t be gauged by numbers, only through our unique personal experience over time. In other words, we can all be successful, exhibit arete, and find that rich eudaimonia we seek in our own personal way.
This is why Aristotle’s advice for a good life is still relevant today.
-Originally posted on Medium 7/5/23