Virtue is the only good

 

Everybody wants to be happy.  While clearly not everybody IS, everybody WANTS to be happy.  We can have all sorts of discussions about what happiness is or about the social nature of mankind.  Folks chase happiness with things, actions, relationships.  People seek happiness, not knowing what that is or how to achieve it.  Even in our darkest times, if asked whether we would like to be happy, nobody will decline.

We frequently just have no idea how to achieve this.

Philosophers from all ages and schools have generally tried to ponder two things: how to understand the universe – and honestly, good luck with that – and how to achieve happiness.  Stoics are no different and when it came to happiness, stoicism could be summarized in the simple “virtue is the only good.”

Whatever that means.

In 58 AD the Stoic Philosopher Seneca wrote to his older brother and sent him an essay called “On the happy life.”  His opening made it clear that while happiness is the goal, actively pursuing it is impossible since it makes every decision more anxiety driven that a turn down the wrong path can swiftly lead away from the goal.  Happiness should be a consequence, not the goal and will result from a pursuit of virtue or moral righteousness. And that’s the crux: virtue is the pursuit of moral excellence, the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong (definition from vocabulary.com – not identifying the source would be plagiarism and that is wrong).

Stoics reasoned that pursuing happiness through the acquisition of goods was impossible since it created a never-ending loop of looking for new things to acquire.  Stoics weren’t ascetic and did not view the possessions themselves as bad – no worries, you do not need to pursue a life of ash and sackcloth – just realized that tying the “getting of stuff” to being happy as futile. 

Well then, how the fork do you pursue virtue?  Or doing what is right?  Or avoiding what is wrong?  Seems like identifying a path, only for that path to be impossible to travel is … sub-optimal.  Humanity has been arguing for thousands of years about what is right and wrong and what rules we should follow.  Luckily the stoics have come up with three simple rules that address all of life’s issues.

Ok, they haven’t. 

Stoics, especially Seneca in his essay, view the human quality of reason and its ability to sift through issues as paramount.  We want to do what is right by pursuing justice, wisdom, courage and discipline and using reason to determine the correct course of action.

In this, the stoic path does become one of responsibility.  We cannot merely follow rules but have to determine with our reason which actions are rational, moral, and will bring us in harmony with the ordered universe.

No pressure.

Epictetus, Esq