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badluck.Butyouhavetomake every
bitofdifferenceyoucanmake to be
thebestpossibleversionofyourself.
Sayingthathappinessis a choice is
verymuchthewaywethinktoday.
That’sa verybigresponsibility.
Becauseif youfail,youcanonly
blameyourself.That’sthedownside
ofit. Butif youtry,youareprobably
stilllessunhappythanif youhaven’t
tried.Andthat’sa heavyresponsibility
butalsoveryliberating,because it’s
uptoyouandnobodycantake it
awayfromyou.I’vetalkedto
psychologistsaboutthat,and many
ofthemsaythatthethingsAristotle
saidareverysimilartoa lotof
psychologist’sworktoday.They are
verysurprisedathowmuchhe was
awareofalreadythatlongago. So
yes,it’sa choice,it’sanattitude, it’s
takingcharge.Youcan’tgoaround
blamingotherpeopleforyour misery.
Ofcourse,peopledobadthings to
you.Andif you’reanAristotelian,
you’reabsolutelyentitledtoseek
justice.Butif youdon’tachieve this
peacewithyourselfyoucannot
ultimatelyblameit onanyone else.
You’vegottotakecharge;in terms >New
thinkersBritish professor Edith Hall is inspired by the ideas of
Aristotle. In the fourth century BC, this Greek philosopher was
already studying themes such as happiness and friendship.In your book Aristotle’s Way
you refer to the Greek
philosopher as our new
happiness guru. What is
happiness according to Aristotle?
First of all, we do tend to use the
word ‘happy’ a great deal. In the
common understanding, it’s often
used to mean a very temporary thing,
that lasts for a few hours. You feel
happy because something nice has
happened, like you buy a Happy Meal
or you go out for a few hours and feel
happy. In ancient Greek, there were
also words for that feeling, but they
were more like pleasure, ecstasy or
bliss. And then there’s also the
important difference between
subjective and objective happiness.
When people are looking at you from
the outside, they might say you’ve
lived a happy life. That means that,
for instance, you didn’t have any bad
accidents, financial problems or
poverty. I often use the example of
Queen Victoria: She lived to be 90
years old, all her children outlived her,
she did a good job at what she was
doing. But she may have been
subjectively absolutely miserable.
So what kind of happiness is
Aristotle talking about?
Aristotle was the first philosopher to
enquire into subjective happiness—not
short-term, subjective happiness, like
pleasure, but happiness in the long
term. His project was: How to achieve
true inner peace and purpose, which
is self-generated and not dependent
on any outside factors. He developed
a sophisticated, humane program for
becoming a happy person, and it
remains valid to this day. Aristotelian
ethics encompass everything modern
thinkers associate with subjective
happiness: self-realization, finding
‘a meaning’, and the ‘flow’ of creative
involvement with life, or ‘positive
emotion’. Becoming subjectively
happy as an individual, Aristotle
insisted, is your unique and
momentous responsibility. It is
also a great gift; it is within most
people’s power, regardless of their
circumstances, to decide to become
happier. And the way that you do that
is by deciding to become the best
possible version of yourself, giving
that there will always be limitations.
You accept that and you may have