Work on your character! Then you will be happy! At least that was Aristotle’s message when he wrote the Nicomachean Ethics 2,500 years ago. If you train a character trait well — courage, for example — you can call yourself virtuous in that area. Aristotle described a large number of virtues and their counterparts, the vices. He also described how you can strengthen your character and what you should pay attention to. He came up with the golden center for this.
Aristotle and the virtues of character
Aristotle thought there were two types of virtues: intellectual virtues and character virtues. Intellectual virtues include insight, know-how, knowledge and common sense. But as humans we also have to interact with other people. Man is by nature social, Aristotle stated. A person who has no need for others is either a god or a beast. A person therefore needs qualities to be able to get along well with others. These are the virtues of character. You can think of courage, moderation, generosity, kindness and honesty.
Art of living from the golden middle
Aristotle had an interesting way of identifying a virtue. He thought that a virtue lies between two extremes, which are in themselves evil. For example, consider courage. That’s about fear, courage and self-confidence. If you don’t have enough courage, you are cowardly. You let your fear guide you. That happens when someone is being bullied and you don’t dare to stand up for him. You can also have too much courage. Then you are not properly informed by justified fears. Then you go against your teacher or boss, just at a time when he is already angry (for example because the class is too wild). Or you will take unnecessary risks. There are plenty of videos where young people sit in a shopping cart and drive full speed into a curb. That kind of stunting is reckless. Courage is right between cowardly and reckless. Fear tells you what dangers there are, but if an action is right or just, you will do it anyway. It is the same with other virtues, thought Aristotle. Thus generosity is the mean between stinginess and prodigality; and ambition are the middle ground between laziness and wanting to overachieve.
Individual differences: phronesis
The right middle differs per person. Not everyone should practice the same amount of a virtue. Aristotle used the example of food. You should not eat too much, but also not too little. There is a right middle. But this varies per person. A slim model may only eat a small amount to properly fulfill her function. A bodybuilder, on the other hand, has to work hard to eat enough and maintain his muscles. This is also the case with virtues. What you need to do varies depending on the context, your profession, your age and your status. For example, a teacher or police officer has to get angry more often than a therapist or psychologist. Whether you should be generous depends on whether you are dealing with a sloth or an honest person. What the right middle is depends on the situation you find yourself in. You have to determine the middle yourself. You learn this through experience and common sense, Aristotle said. He called this practical wisdom phronesis .
What is being happy? Eudaimonia
For Aristotle, it is precisely in fulfilling a function that the key to happiness lies, although he understood happiness very differently than we do now. Aristotle was also a biologist and stated that every creature has a function or purpose appropriate to that species. A plant achieves its purpose when it blooms. A lion fulfills its function if it is large and strong and can hunt well. And a human? A human being is a social and thinking being. He fulfills his function if he can interact with others in an exemplary manner and think in an exemplary manner. In other words: if he can live up to all the virtues, then a person is happy. Happiness therefore means excelling or being excellent rather than being satisfied and happy. Virtue is what man should strive for. Aristotle called this state: eudaimonia .
And then have fun? The power of habits
Pleasure or pleasure was not the goal of life, as with Epicurus. Does that mean that pleasure was not important at all? Aristotle was aware that a person does not do what he does not feel like doing. It is therefore important to train children to enjoy virtue from an early age. Only then can someone grow up truly virtuous. If a person enjoys doing bad things, it will be difficult for him to become a good person, even if he wants to improve his life. Once you have a bad character, it is difficult to get rid of it. That is the power of habits. So fun is indeed important. You have to manage it the right way!
Modern virtue ethics
Today, this virtue ethics approach, the choice to express the good life in virtues, is very popular. Both philosophy and psychology make use of Aristotle’s insights. Modern philosophers who are concerned with virtue ethics include Philippa Foot, Alasdair MacIntyre and Martha Nussbaum. A recent movement in psychology is positive psychology. This not only looks at when people do not feel psychologically well, but also at how we can make normal life even better. Martin Seligman, who led this movement, identified 24 virtues that give value to life. Many of these are similar to those of Aristotle, such as wisdom, courage and industry. Others are less similar, such as love, hope and enthusiasm. Positive psychologists believe that you can turn your strongest virtues into your strength.
Conclusion
According to Aristotle, life is about building good character. From an early age, children should be taught to take pleasure in virtue. By focusing on virtue (and not pleasure), he followed his teacher Plato. But more than Plato, Aristotle gave very specific descriptions of virtues and how to practice them. We must learn to correctly assess where the right middle ground lies, that is where happiness lies.