How to Live "the Good Life"

What does it mean to live a good life? What is true happiness? How much is enough? And how can you make the best use of the years you have remaining?

Aristotle asked these important questions more than two thousand years ago. And two weeks ago, in Las Vegas (of all places) we tried to answer them.

As I mentioned in my last column, I recently chaired a debate between economists Todd Bucholz and Mark Skousen. The resolution was “The Rat Race: Good or Bad for Americans?” (Although our discussion ranged far beyond this.)

Bucholz argued that our ultra-competitive capitalist system is a blessing, responsible for breakthrough technologies, life-saving medical advances, and widespread material prosperity. Yes, the rat race can create stress and anxiety, but it also gets our juices flowing, sharpens our minds and helps give our lives purpose and direction.

There is a potential downside, however. It is easy to become obsessive about work and its financial rewards – and to wake up one day and find that the life you’re leading is about as deep as a candy dish.

As Skousen pointed out, life is not just about getting and spending. We have to make time for family, friends, laughter and leisure. It’s about balance and moderation.

Aristotle called this the golden mean. Understand its importance, he said, and you’re on your way to “the good life.”

A little background might be helpful…

Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC) was a student of Plato and tutor to Alexander the Great. He taught logic, rhetoric, metaphysics, poetry, music, and ethics. He introduced a structure of logical thought that laid the groundwork for empirical science. And his writings became the first comprehensive system of Western philosophy.

Yes, the world today looks very different from ancient Greece. But people themselves haven’t changed a whit. Then, as now, the conventional view was that a “successful” life is about career advancement, power, prestige, material goods, sensual pleasure and social approval.

Aristotle rejected this line of thinking – and devoted his life to exploring the best way for human beings to live.

He insisted that genuine happiness isn’t about fulfilling our wants and needs. (Even animals do that.) For reasoning, morally-aware beings like ourselves, happiness is the result of something that sounds quaint (even old-fashioned) in our do-your-own-thing world: Virtue.

Only the virtuous life, Aristotle said, leads to real satisfaction. Virtue is found in the middle, between the extremes of excess and deficiency. He gave plenty of examples:

In almost every area of our lives, including “the rat race,” disproportion is the thief of real happiness. Even good things – wealth, love, friendship – pursued immoderately, can become a source of misery. The trick is to find the right balance.

(Incidentally, I’ve found that this “middle road” leads to success in the investment arena, too. For example, many investors are so risk-averse they find themselves in ultra-low-yielding investments that make it impossible to reach their financial goals or beat inflation. Others roll the dice and lose their shirts in options, futures, penny stocks or other speculative vehicles. The solution is not to fear risk – or ignore it – but rather to embrace and intelligently manage it.)

Always look for that golden mean, the middle ground between too much and too little. This is what leads to real satisfaction and contentment, to what Aristotle called eudaimonia.

Recognizing these virtues is one thing, of course. Embodying them is another. “It is no easy task to find the middle,” Aristotle conceded. But if we don’t, our lives will be “full of regrets.”

People are often drawn to Aristotle’s ideas in the second half of life. By then, most of us have set aside our youthful fantasies about money and celebrity and are focused instead on knowledge, awareness, companionship and community. Plus, you’ve gained something you didn’t have before: perspective.

Aristotle’s natural audience is mature, thoughtful people who have a healthy dissatisfaction with their current lives. They want to feel that they are not just living but flourishing.

That requires wisdom. And the highest wisdom, in Aristotle’s view, is to care about the right sorts of things: other people, truth, freedom, justice – and virtue.

In this debate, Bucholz and Skousen both made valid points. Meaningful work – whether you’re compensated for it or not – is an essential part of the good life. But so are decent health, human connections, personal goals and a wealth of interests.

Aristotle would offer that work is the virtue between the excesses of idleness and frivolity. But he would also remind you that to be human is to realize your potential for growth, to develop your higher aspects.

Happiness, he declared, isn’t something you feel. It’s something you do.

Carpe Diem,

Alex

P.S. If you’d like to catch this debate between Eric Bucholz and Mark Skousen, set your DVR. It will be televised on C-Span-2 tomorrow at 11:50 a.m. Eastern Time.