god forbade...must reading

Life Purpose

    The purpose of life seems to be in search of what philosophers sometimes call the summum bonum. Latin for the highest good or ultimate end of human existence. Some philosophers would deny that there is any such objective end or goal of human life, only subjective ends, which each of us decide for ourselves.

     An Aristotlean view allows for considerable latitude in selecting diverse subjective ends, compatible with actualizing this one, broad objective end.

    For Aristotle, the highest good or ultimate human end is not merely to survive. As Thomas Aquinas noted, if a ship captain wanted simply to survive, he wouldn't venture out to sea.

   True, in order to survive and be procreative, we need to satisfy certain basic needs, food, clothing, and shelter. Of course, we also need enough money to secure these things in ample quality and amount. No doubt survival and procreation are material conditions of satisfying our higher aspirations as individuals and as a species.

  But, according to Aristotle, these purposes are just instrumental, extrinsic to our true happiness, not a part of, intrinsic or essential to it.

    Instead, for Aristotle, our essential nature is a rational one. Human beings are by their very definition, rational animals. We are, by nature, uniquely qualified for rational existence. As a species of animal, our keen and extraordinary ability to reason is the virtue or excellence of humankind. Doing it well is what makes us happy or self-actualized. Accordingly, the broad-based end of living life rationally is what Aristotle regards as the summum bonum of humankind.

    Aristotle would say the greatest service you could perform is to be true to your true self, your rational side. In other words, your happiness is not irrelevant. Contrarily, it is what counts the most. The question is then how to be happy.

   Here, a common mistake is to define happiness in terms of pleasure. Concluding happiness is incompatible with doing anything that takes hard work and perseverance. In fact, the greatest, long-term pleasures come with cultivating your rational capacities.

These include pursuing your education, getting involved in projects that allow you to engage your talents, ranging from the arts and applied sciences to the pure theoretical sciences, philosophy, and mathematics. These capacities include cultivating friendships with peers, improving close intimate ties by working on getting along with others without engaging in irrational and self-defeating behavior.

    Rational improvement also involves avoiding demanding perfection of yourself or others. Not over-reacting or engaging in catastrophic thinking, increasing your tolerance for frustration by pushing yourself to stick with important tasks rather than caving in to short-term relief of frustration. It involves courage not to get carried away by unreasonable fears, inauthenticity and thinking for yourself rather than blind conformity, empathetic regard for others' circumstances instead of short-sided, self-defeating egocentricity. Basing your judgments on evidence rather than on wishful, fatalistic, or any other kind of irrational thinking.

    Such a happy rationality involves feeling and being secure about reality. This means being willing to accept disappointment and the short-comings inherent in life without needlessly disturbing yourself. It involves not trying to control what is not in your power to control, and instead sticking to those things that truly are in your control. This means not demanding the approval of others before allowing yourself to feel contented, it means not telling yourself that you are a failure if you aren't perfect.

   But it is largely up to us whether we live within these broad, rational parameters or outside of them. Happiness involves skill building and practice. It involves cultivating the right temperament, habit of mind, and disposition to act. If we are willing to work hard cognitively, behaviorally, and emotionally in shaping how we live, we can live happily.

Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D.

in What Would Aristotle Do?

Psychology Today

see Emotional Contagion