I’ve always loved Aristotle. I’ve read up on some of his work, in and out of a wonderful Intro to Philosophy class I took. What I particularly enjoy are his ideas on how crucial happiness is to life. He asserts that the search for happiness is the most important part of our lives; however, he does not mean “happiness” in a selfish or pleasure-seeking way. It’s more of a way of trying to accomplish a full life of fulfilled potential, and his term for it is “eudaimonia”.
What really interested me in his discussions of happiness was his reasoning about the central role of priorities. Aristotle posited that every goal or area in our lives tends to contribute to a greater one; in theory, all these goals contribute to our overall happiness. Happiness is the only thing that does not lend to anything else; we may do a lot of things in order to achieve happiness, but our intent in achieving happiness is happiness itself. What I take from this is that, if my goals lead to each other, and they all lead to my personal happiness, any unhappiness I encounter may be due either to a failed goal or to the fact that my goals are out of order.
Yes, I realize it’s a confusing set up, but hang with me here. The point is that priorities are crucial. This may not sound like news, but sometimes the things that seem like they should be high priority fail because other things need to come first. For instance, I may place occupational security high on the list, ahead of personal interests or or social life, but if I am not happily interested in my job, or it causes me to spend inadequate amounts of time with those I love, it does not matter how financially secure I am–my career will fail me.
At this point in my life, as I approach graduation in May, I am taking this to heart. I am focusing on reordering my goals to reflect the ends I really want to achieve, taking into account areas of my life that have been up to this point rather neglected.
I guess one thing that bothers me about Aristotle, though, is that he saw happiness as limited to this lifetime; there is no afterlife in his philosophy. However, I do feel that Christianity can be very easily embedded into his ideas. Certainly, the idea of disordered priorities applies in my spiritual walk; for a while now my prayer life has taken a back seat to graduate school applications, part-time jobs, relationships, and school work. How will any of those things make me happy if they do not reflect God’s will for my life? If I get things back in the right order and put God first, I’m much more likely to find joy in future endeavors.
Aristotle also brought up another intriguing idea–the “Golden Mean.” This involves doing and having everything in moderation, with no extremes and much control. I really do think he is on to something there, and I think it is an idea worth living by. I’ve attached a link relating this concept to StarWars, which sounds ridiculous but actually works.
Lastly, I just love this quote in relation to this subject: “Happiness is the settling of the soul into its most appropriate spot.”— Aristotle
Alison on Frederick Nietzsche
10:59 pm, 02.21.11
I like the idea of being the architect of my own future, but I guess existentialism scares me because I feel that it can be used to justify anything. If you take this just to mean that we should avoid letting others take control of our lives, I agree. If you take this to mean that there is no right or wrong, only what is “authentic” to you, I feel like it can get dangerous. True, we should not live by others’ standards. However, we do still have God’s standards to keep in mind. That being said, I like the ideas of existentialism to a point–as long as they don’t spiral out of control.
Alison on Kierkegaard
10:52 pm, 02.21.11
I find myself alternately awed and frustrated by Kierkegaard. He has so many brilliant, inspirational ideas, but he also makes me feel like banging my head against a wall when I read some of his writings about constant doubt, struggle, pain and trials. However, one thing that I most respect about him is the fact that he always tried to make his Christianity real and meaningful; he was never happy with just a token Christianity. Like you say, his relationship with God was at times rocky and unfulfilling, but he never gave it up.
Alison on The Allegory of the Cave
6:18 pm, 02.02.11
I love this idea of relating the Cave Allegory to Christianity. I also think it works particularly well in relation to evangelism. Plato speaks of the freed man trying to go back to the cave and tell his friends about the world outside. However, it seems that in his allegory the men in the cave are rather hopeless, and will never understand their friend’s message. I think that although not all the prisoners will hear the message, some must wonder what is going on…and if they can be freed by their friend, they have the potential to go and discover the world in the light. This puts evangelism and our role in it in a different light– why wouldn’t the freed man want to share his discoveries with his friends? He wouldn’t be worried about offending them, or them thinking he was crazy. He would be so desperate to show them how wonderful a freed life can be–and we should be just as excited about sharing the Truth with those who have not experienced it yet.
Alison on Plato and Aristotle: The Relationship of Teacher and Student
12:52 pm, 02.02.11
Socrates and Plato had a similar teacher/student relationship. I feel that both pairings gave us fine examples of how to learn without being indoctrinated– allowing others to contribute to our knowledge while keeping our minds our own. Thanks for bringing up this example that we can learn from.
Alison on Views of Happiness?
11:31 pm, 02.01.11
I like what you had to say about the relevance of these philosophers to both our everyday and spiritual lives. My one comment would be in response to what you said about Aristotle’s idea of the complete life. I agree that it is very possible for those who are young to fulfill God’s will, but I think Aristotle may have been saying that our happiness is constantly being formed by our every choice and action. Therefore, a “happy” life is one in which you fulfill your potential…and since those who are young have lots of life left, and thus much potential left to fulfill. Of course, this is just my personal interpretation.
Alison on Reason
11:14 pm, 02.01.11
I definitely agree with what you’re saying; Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard had a lot to say in this matter. He was very big on what he called the “leap of faith”; he thought reason could only get you so far, but that you must take that leap of faith, even if it seems crazy to everyone else, in order to fully experience Christianity. If you don’t, the paradoxes of Christianity are impossible to resolve; for instance, how could Jesus have been both fully human and fully divine? Reason is not so helpful in solving that dilemma– we must take a leap of faith in order to understand.