Edith Hall, Aristotle’s Way.
I’ve always had a lot of interests. Life is fascinating, and learning from humanity’s greatest minds, all the more. So, in a way, I am always searching —God’s Truth is infinite. Although I am careful in my quest to test what I read, like the Church fathers, however, I delight in finding “seeds of the Word” in the world.
Since it is nearly impossible for me to leave a bookstore without a purchase, recently I read Edith Hall’s Aristotle’s Way; How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life. A relevant book published when the West is experiencing the loss of the intellectual treasures of classical culture, its wisdom can help anybody live a more fulfilling life.
In the first chapter on happiness, we learn that as human beings we are always moving from a state of potentiality to actuality. For better or worse, we make decisions that actualize a version of ourselves and world that is latent, potentially existent. This basic fact, believed Aristotle, reveals that happiness is not a confluence of propitious events, since circumstances always change, but rather “finding a purpose to realize your potential and working on your behavior to become the best version of yourself.”
Another way of stating this, writes Dr. Hall, is that happiness is the result of living in a competent and planned manner; something you elect to do to control your life and destiny.
Aristotle reasoned that if you consciously and consistantly work towards actualizing goodness, such as coming to know more of the world, acquiring moral habits, learning new skills, and pursuing excellence in what you do (whether in making a lasagna, building an investment portfolio, or brewing a really good beer), you’ll be happy. Since human beings do things, happiness can only be the result of fulfilling potential by a careful use of reason and will in the time that is given on earth.
St. Thomas Aquinas spelled this insight out further in light of Christian revelation as the way forward to an ultimate destiny, beatitude in God (that is, perfect fulfillment and unending bliss). By practicing the cardinal virtues of justice, prudence, temperance and fortitude, as well as, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, a person becomes more fully divinized, alive in God, until that eternal day when God is possessed in rapturous joy forever.
So decide now to be happy. Carefully choose what to do and how to do it each day (even if you must work a job that is less than satisfactory). Plan into your week activities and projects that stretch your intellect and imagination. Scrap the negative thinking and bad habits that stand in the way and just waste energy and time. Further, practice the virtues by “doing the right thing.” By consciously choosing what is good, and patiently striving for excellence, you’ll animate your truest self and all of the beauty hidden in your soul.
“For the good is simple, but the bad is various in form; the good person is constant and does not change in character; but the bad and foolish are quite different in the evening from what they were in the morning.” — Aristotle, Eudemian Ethics (Book VII)
