Greetings Readers!
In this episode of In Search of Wisdom, I’m sharing an email meditation from our course, Happiness & the Meaning of Life. This four-week course is a philosophical study of the art (and science) of living well.
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“Is not the wise man happier if he has lived longer and has been distracted by no pain than one who has always been compelled to grapple with evil fortune? Answer me now—is he any better or more honorable? If he is not, then he is not happier either. In order to live more happily, he must live more rightly; if he cannot do that, he cannot live more happily either. Virtue cannot be strained tighter, and therefore neither can the happy life, which depends on virtue.”
— SENECA, On the Happy Life
The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
The Greek word eudaimonia is often translated as "happiness," although it does not quite capture its philosophical meaning. Eudaimonia generally refers to the quality of someone's way of living rather than a mood. In his book Stoicism and the Art of Happiness, Donald Robertson (a previous podcast guest) explains that other philosophical schools might imply someone enjoying external good fortune. For the Stoics, being a good person and having a good life are synonymous. Happiness and unhappiness consist of how we respond to events and the use we make of them.
The Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius interprets the word this way in his Meditations (or notes to himself),
Philosophical eudaimonia is a condition in which a person of excellent character is living optimally well, flourishing, doing admirably, and steadily enjoying the best mindset that is available to human beings.
Living a life of eudaimonia is a rare thing for the Stoics. The perfect Sage, or one who has attained eudaimonia, is as rare as the Ethiopian phoenix, which, according to legend, exists once every 500 years. But something you'll read about in Stoic writings much more often than eudaimonia is virtue. For the Stoics, virtue is a necessary ingredient to living well.
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On the Happy Life
In a letter known today as On the Happy Life, the stateman and Stoic philosopher Seneca wrote,
What is the happy life? It is peace of mind and lasting tranquillity. This will be yours if you possess greatness of soul; it will be yours if you possess the steadfastness that resolutely clings to a good judgment just reached. How does a man reach this condition? By gaining a complete view of truth, by maintaining, in all that he does, order, measure, fitness, and a will that is inoffensive, and kindly, that is intent upon reason and never departs therefrom, that commands at the same time love and admiration. In short, to give you the principle in brief compass, the wise man’s soul ought to be such as would be proper for a god.
A consistent theme throughout Seneca's letters is that virtue is the only (or highest) good. The Stoics’ emphasis on virtue as the highest good differs from other philosophical schools. For example, the Epicureans, a rival school of the time, stressed that pleasure was the highest good. Epicurus said, "Pleasure is the starting point and the goal of living blessedly."
Seneca takes a much different approach:
If you are not contented with only that which is honorable (or virtuous), it must follow that you desire in addition to either the kind of quiet which the Greeks call “undisturbedness” or else pleasure. But the former may be attained in any case. For the mind is free from disturbance when it is fully free to contemplate the universe, and nothing distracts it from the contemplation of nature. The second, pleasure, is simply the good of cattle. We are but adding the irrational to the rational, the dishonorable to the honorable. A pleasant physical sensation affects this life of ours; why, therefore, do you hesitate to say that all is well with a man just because all is well with his appetite?
For Seneca (and the Stoics), virtue is the supreme good. Virtue alone is sufficient for the good life. He stresses to his friend Lucilius, "Man's primary art is virtue itself." Moreover, nothing can be added or taken away from that which is honorable (virtue).
Seneca points out:
There are in life things which are advantageous and disadvantageous—both beyond our control. If a good man, in spite of being weighed down by all kinds of disadvantages, is not wretched, how is he not supremely happy, no matter if he lacks certain advantages? As he is not weighted down to wretchedness by his burden of disadvantages, he is not withdrawn from supreme happiness through lack of any advantages; nay, he is just as supremely happy without the advantages as he is free from wretchedness though under the load of his disadvantages.
The Stoics deliver a profoundly inspiring and empowering lesson. Not only can nothing be added or taken away from virtue. It is never beyond our control. Seneca writes, "Suppose I set before you a man who is neither miserable nor happy. I add blindness to his misfortunes; he is not rendered unhappy." Therefore, one whose life is not changed to misery by all these ills is not dragged by them or from his life of happiness. Stoic joy is not a feeling or a mood; it is a way of living.
Additional Resources
Learn more about Stoicism as a way of life from my conversation with Massimo Pigliucci (author of A Quest for Character).
Listen to a selected reading of Seneca's On the Happy Life
Learn about Stoic journaling from my conversation with Brittany Polat (author of Journal Like a Stoic).
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Thank you for listening; I hope you found something useful.
Until next time, be wise and be well,
J.W.
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