A Happy Society

The question is asked, “How do we acquire happiness?” Are we taught the way? Do we just wing it and learn from our mistakes? Is it simply a God given gift or do we get lucky and happen into it? If God was to give us a gift, it would certainly be happiness above anything else. But this isn't a religious study. Regardless of the origin, we do see that it comes through virtue and a process of learning and training. Since happiness is the prize for doing our best and the end of all our efforts, it does have a God like quality. This is commonly understood by normal people.

Those who haven’t been totally maimed in their ability to practice virtue can achieve it again by paying attention and learning. Should we leave the rest to chance as some argue? Leaving anything to nature or chance means to let it go and let nature take its course. It also means that it is as good as it gets. To improve things requires the use of our rational mind. Our potential exists in this realm. The greatest and most noble causes should not be entrusted to chance.

It takes three things to acquire happiness; virtue of the soul, goods that are necessary and goods that are useful but not necessary. It should be the goal of a society to make these things available to its citizens. They should especially educate their citizens on how to have a solid character; to be good and capable of noble acts. 

Virtue and Pleasure

We take pleasure in the things we love and desire comes from our soul; where happiness is based. Everyone agrees that a pleasurable life is doing what we love. A horse is pleasant to a lover of horses, scenery is pleasant to a lover of nature. Justice and Virtue are also pleasant to those who love them. This causes a conflict in most people. Even though we know by nature doing right is the most satisfying thing to do, at times there are other things we feel would be more enjoyable. There are some people who seem naturals at doing what is right but we see that they also don’t know how to have fun. But we still say someone who doesn't do what is right is a bad person. If they actually dislike being just or liberal, we cannot call them good. This causes us to conclude that virtuous actions are both universal and essential for true happiness. But there must also be a fulfillment of our desires with it. A person who understands this is considered a good person. Virtue is universal and brings stability while things that are enjoyed vary with each person.  The inscription at Delos says, “The most noble thing is justice. The best thing is to have health, but it is pleasant to win what we love.

In order to add pleasure to our lives we need external goods, to some extent, since equipment is necessary to accomplish anything. Influence and friends are also needed in order to get the things we enjoy. People sometimes equate a lack of certain things with unhappiness, such as good looks, poverty or being childless. Those who have a child go bad or lost friends and family to death see that this lack does cause unhappiness. It has to be recognized that happiness involves some kind of prosperity. Some push the idea that happiness is good fortune alone while others will say it is virtue alone. But we see it as a combination of the two. Virtue for stability and good fortune for pleasure. Next we will examine how we form our ideals.

A Foundation of Quality

We started with a rough outline on what is meant by good. It has a broad interpretation. So to stay on track, a foundation has to be laid that is based on facts. We want to have enough details to point us in the right direction without giving in to dogma. It is intended that this study can be used in any culture. A right angle is a right angle anywhere you go. A carpenter will need enough information to keep his building square while someone studying trigonometry will need much more detail. They both start out with a right angle that is universally known. True principles are also this way. But each has to be introduced in a simple and orderly way. We look for truth through three avenues; things that are self-evident, things that we learn through our senses, and by thought habits from our culture. These aren't the only ways, but are the most dominant. Regardless of the avenue, we want to start on a foundation of what is common knowledge. This makes it easier to start a good conversation with anyone.

Let’s start with an idea, what we are sure of and what is commonly known, then compare them with each other. If all three are in are in harmony, we can move on and use the idea as a fact. But if there is a conflict, then the principle might not be true. Rather than quick effortless generalizations, we want to start with quality.

Good can be classified as belonging to three realms; material goods, bodily goods and that which is good for our soul. The soul is the most important part to examine because we use our bodies and materials to please our soul. This seems to be universally taught by most philosophers. Material things and physical vices cannot bring us inner satisfaction and therefore aren't considered the basis for happiness. When we say a person is good, it is universally understood to mean that they take good actions and do what is right. But this goodness of the soul also has different realms.  Some think an attitude of excellence is the most important; others think that having the ability to practically apply knowledge is what is best. Being creative is the most important trait  for happiness in some people’s opinion.  We also have pleasure or forgoing pleasure, and don’t forget prosperity. None of these are completely wrong. All have valid points in different respects.

But to those who equate happiness with virtue there is little room for debate. But we have to be careful to point out that claimed virtue and practiced virtue are two completely different things. You can’t win an athletic competition by just looking good and feeling strong. A person has to work at it and compete. It is the same way with virtue. It isn’t a state of mind but the sum of what a person practices

Defining Good

Saying that happiness makes  a good life seems like a simple platitude. We should try to be more specific: To define good, we look at occupations. Each occupation has a good that is related to its function. A musician or a carpenter are good based on how well they perform in their occupation. The question is, “What is the overall occupation of mankind?” Our hands and feet have certain functions, but what is the overall occupation of being human. We can’t say just being alive is it because then we would be no different than a plant. So this eliminates things that have to do with nutrition and growth. If our function is a life of only seeing and perceiving, we would be no different from animals. Human beings both recognize and obey certain principles and strive for excellence in obeying them. Therefore we can conclude that what humans consider good has to do with activities of the soul.

Since we recognize a good musician or a good carpenter then we also should recognize what is good for life as a whole. Goodness as it applies to each particular subject is according to actions. A carpenter will build something well and a musician play well.  What actions of the soul prove that a lifestyle is good and the person will do well? Certainly we would want to know what they are and how to perform them with excellence. This is what is known as virtue; a person performing the occupation of being a human at its very best. Not as a single event but as something that brings happiness to an entire life. This describes what we mean by “good” as it pertains to ethics and happiness. 

Spirit, soul and body

The next section will be commentary.;

I have studied many opinions about three parts to our being.  Theologians teach that God is a three part being, father, son and spirit. They teach that individuals have three parts, spirit, soul and body. Aristotle says there are three parts to life; pleasurable, political and contemplative. By life he means activity and the motive behind them. Pleasure is to please our body, political is how we are known and contemplative is our inner self. Although the religious studies I have had in the past have a hard time separating spirit, soul and flesh, this makes the division clearer. To depend on stimulus and always need bodily pleasure to be happy is what simple people do and also is closer to the motive behind an animal’s actions. To depend on reputation for happiness can also be a dead end since it makes one dependent on others. The contemplative self is the best place to get happiness. None of them are bad, but pleasure and honor are unreliable unless we manage them properly and keep them in their proper perspective. What is important is the inner self, as the saying goes: “Be true to yourself”. We can see a correlation between spirit and self, soul and reputation, then body and pleasure; three motives behind our actions.

Modern communication teaches that we have a presentation self and our true selves. They also teach that ruminating can ruin our lives. This is saying something similar; what we meditate on makes us. It is unhealthy to worry so much about what others think. It is also unhealthy to base happiness in material things. Jesus told his followers not to depend on wealth and pleasure. He became of no reputation. He also taught that the kingdom of God is within us. Sounds like a parallel to me. I am sure the same can be said for other religions. 

These teachings have been invaluable to me for clarity. I decided to study this over a year ago and have been fascinated by it ever since. I hope to keep things on this blog understandable and free of boredom. Don’t be afraid to comment.  

Definite or opinion

Getting back to our study, we observe that all knowledge and pursuit aim at improvement. We also realize how well humans work with each other determines if something good can come out of their lives. Everyone great and small agree that we ultimately want to be happy and that is the goal of everything we do. The problem is that everyone describes happiness differently. Common people think it is something plain like money, pleasure or influence. Their definition varies according to what they need. A sick person will only want health and the poor would say that wealth would make them happy. Those who are ignorant will admire someone of more knowledge then themselves. Some say there is a common, superior good that all others point to. Others say there is a perfect good within us that produces the good in everything. There are many opinions on this and we will examine only those that are viable and aren't prone to speculation.

We get truth from two directions. First there are things outside of ourselves that are definite and that we are yet to learn. Second there are things we have already learned and experiences we draw from that give us better understanding of what we encounter. Therefore knowledge has two faces, truths we are convinced of and truth that is definite. Obviously we want them as close together as possible. This takes a good education and experience. To start discussing politics, a person first needs to have taken the time to learn and have been brought up well. That way it is easy to skip over details because what is definite is already known.  Those who lack expertise have to trust those who have it. To inexperienced people who assume they are knowledgeable and ignore those who really are, studying politics is difficult..  Having to backtrack on basic knowledge makes instruction difficult, but to try and teach someone who thinks he knows yet doesn't  is a waste of both the instructor’s and the student’s time.

We have digressed again but will continue with our discussion about happiness on the next post.