1. Being Good and Being Happy: Eudaimonic Well-Being Insights from Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

All references to Plato’s dialogues in this chapter are to Stephanus page numbers, usually found in the margins in all modern editions and translations. The translations are mostly by Benjamin Jowett, unless otherwise stated. Sometime a slightly modernized version of Jowett’s rendering is used, always remaining true to its spirit, never to alter the true meaning of the text. All of Plato’s dialogues, translated by Benjamin Jowett (which many scholars regard as the best overall translation of Plato’s dialogues), are available at: https://​www.​sacred-texts.​com/​cla/​plato/​index.​htm

Perhaps the most widely used edition of Plato’s dialogues is Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns (Editors), The Collected Dialogues of Plato: Including the Letters (Bollingen Series LXXI) (New Jersey: Princeton University Press; New Impression edition, 2005). Also see: John M. Cooper (Editor), D. S. Hutchinson (Editor), Plato: Complete Works (Indianapolis, Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Co. 1997); Robin Waterfield, (trans.), Plato’s Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998); Allan Bloom (trans.), The Republic of Plato, 3rd edition (New York: Basic Books, 2016). Two translations of Plato’s Republic stand out: F. M. Cornford, trans., The Republic of Plato (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955); G. M. A Grube, Plato: Republic, 2nd edition, revised by C.D.C Reeve (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1992). Grube/Reeve provide perhaps the best overall modern translation of the Republic.

For our changing perspectives of happiness throughout the history, see: Darrin McMahon, Happiness: A History (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press/Grove Press, 2006) and Nicholas White, A Brief History of Happiness (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2006).

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Bailey Saunders, trans., Maxims and Reflections, Maxim 324. Retrieved February 15, 2020: http://​monadnock.​net/​goethe/​maxims.​html

See: Aristotle., W.D. Ross, The Nicomachean Ethics (New York: World Library Classics, 2009). In Book 1, Chapter 4 of N.E., Aristotle says that although there is very general agreement, for both the general run of men and people of superior refinement, that “happiness is the highest good achievable by action,” and they “identify living well and doing well with being happy;” but with regard to what happiness is they differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise.

Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141–166.

See: Edward L. Deci and Richard M. Ryan, Hedonia, Eudaimonia, and Well-Being: An Introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies (2008) 9:1–1. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1007/​s10902-006-9018-1.

See: M. Joseph Sirgy, The Psychology of Quality of Life: Hedonic Well-Being, Life Satisfaction, and Eudaimonia (New York: Springer, 2018), vii, 1. In this fine study, Sirgy provides three divisions, corresponding to Martin Seligman’s pleasant life, engaged life, and meaningful life: Psychological happiness seems to capture affective-related concepts of well-being such as hedonic well-being, emotional well-being, and positive/negative affect. Prudential happiness is a more macrolevel concept. It incorporates a variety of well-being concepts such as life satisfaction, perceived QOL, domain satisfaction, and subjective well-being. Finally, perfectionist happiness is a more macrolevel concept that seems to capture concepts such as eudaimonia, flourishing, positive mental health, psychological well-being, and personal development.

Alan S. Waterman (1993). Two conceptions of happiness: Contrasts of personal expressiveness (eudaimonia) and hedonic enjoyment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 678–691.

See: Martin Seligman, Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment (New York: Free Press, 2002); Martin Seligman, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being (New York: Free Press, 2012).

Vlastos, G. (1984). Happiness and virtue in Socrates’ moral theory. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, 30, 181–213. https://​doi.​org/​10.​1017/​S006867350000468​5.

Ibid., 249.

James M. Ambury, Socrates (469—399 B.C.E.), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved Feb 1, 2020: https://​www.​iep.​utm.​edu/​socrates/​#SSH2cv [emphasis added].

James M. Ambury, Socrates (469—399 B.C.E.), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved Feb 1, 2020: https://​www.​iep.​utm.​edu/​socrates/​#SSH2cv

For detailed discussion of Socrates’ sufficiency thesis, see Russell E. Jones, Wisdom and Happiness in Euthydemus 278–282, Philosopher’s Imprint, Vol. 13, No. 14, July 2013. Retrieved February 15, 2020: https://​quod.​lib.​umich.​edu/​cgi/​p/​pod/​dod-idx/​wisdom-and-happiness-in-euthydemus-278282.​pdf?​c=​phimp;idno=​3521354.​0013.​014;format=​pdf

James M. Ambury, Socrates (469—399 B.C.E.), Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved Feb 1, 2020: https://​www.​iep.​utm.​edu/​socrates/​#SSH2cv

Ibid., 35.

To ‘take care of soul’ means to make it as morally good (excellent) as possible for the sake of becoming as good and as wise a human being as possible. Thus for Socrates, to ‘take care of one’s soul’ essentially means to strive to make oneself a thoroughly ethical human being—using reason as one’s guide. For Socrates, self-knowledge mainly involved knowledge of the moral values, knowing what is right what is wrong. This faculty of insight into right and wrong resides in the soul.

Ibid., pp. 36–37. [Emphasis added]

Seneca would later echo the same insight: No evil or misfortune can behalf a good person.

For coherence in the main ‘moral argument’ in Plato, see: Julia Annas, An Introduction to Plato’s Republic (New York: Oxford Claredon Press, 1981)—“The single most important book on Republic, and the essential starting-point for further work,” according to Robin Waterfield—See: Robin Waterfield, (trans.), Plato’s Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. lxiv; See also: Gerasimos Santas, Understanding Plato’s Republic (Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010); Nicholas P. White, A Companion to Plato’s Republic (Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1979); and for a detailed scholarly study, and a proper understanding of Plato’s moral philosophy, see: Terence Irwin, Plato’s Ethics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). I find R. L. Nettleship’s masterly essay, ‘Plato’s Conception of Goodness and Good’ (pp. 237–394) published in the first volume of Philosophical Lectures and Remains of Richard Lewis Nettleship (London: The Macmillan Company, 1897) to be the most valuable resource in this regard. As J. H. Muirhead put it in his review of this volume: “Probably there is nothing better on Plato in the language, perhaps in existence, than the “Essay on his Conception of Goodness and the Good. And the secret of this success is that Nettleship has not only read himself, but lives himself into the ideas he expounds.” Nettleship studied with the legendary Benjamin Jowett and his book, Lectures on the Republic of Plato (London: The Macmillan Company, 1897/1929), published more than 100 years ago, is perhaps the most important single book in English language on the interpretation of the Republic. As Bernard Bosanquet, in his book review of Nettleship’s Lectures on the Republic of Plato, says: “By a very long way the best extant introduction to Plato’s Republic; …good from beginning to end.”

To serious students of Plato’s dialogues, five more books can be recommended: George Grote, Plato, and the Other Companions of Sokrates, Vol. 4. (London: John Murray, 1865); Constantin Ritter, The Essence of Plato’s Philosophy (New York: The Dial Press, 1933); A. E. Taylor, Plato: The Man and His Work (London: Methuen & Co Ltd., 1960); N. R. Murphy, The Interpretation of Plato’s Republic (London: Oxford Clarendon Press, 1951); and G. M. A. Grube, Plato’s Thought (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1958). Paul Shorey’s classic book, The Unity of Plato’s Thought (The University of Chicago Press, 1903), is also highly recommended. Paul Shorey was a serious classical scholar. After his death in 1934, one of many articles published about him asserted that he knew all 15,693 lines of the Iliad by heart! See: “Paul Shorey 1857–1934.” Classical Philology 29 (3) (July 1934), 185–188. His introductions to masterly translation of Plato’s Republic (published in two volumes in the Loeb Library) are marvels of exegetical genius and scrupulous fidelity. Readers may get a glimpse of his interpretive depth and sweep from Paul Shorey, What Plato Said (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1933/1967). Spanning almost 700 pages, ‘this book is a resume of the entire body of the Platonic writings.’

As we shall see, the word ‘justice’ is used in the dual sense in the Republic: conventional sense, denoting fairness of one’s conduct toward others; and in the special sense, denoting psychic harmony between the three parts of the soul, or self: reason, spirit, and desire—Reason restraining desire with the help of spirit (will and emotion).

See: Antonis Coumoundouros, Plato: The Republic. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved September 9, 2019: https://​www.​iep.​utm.​edu/​republic/​

Cited in Richard Lewis Nettleship, Lectures on the Republic of Plato, (Honolulu, Hawaii, University Press of the Pacific, 2003, reprint edition), 5. This book is considered a benchmark of Plato scholarship. Published originally in 1890, it is regarded as ‘by a very long way, the best extant introduction to Plato’s Republic,’ according to Bernard Bosanquet.

Ibid., x. [Emphasis added]

Ibid., 109.

Ibid., 119.

Hereafter, references to Nicomachean Ethics are presented according to the Bekker pagination scheme, a standard form of citation to the works of Aristotle. For example, the Bekker number denoting the beginning of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics is 1094a1, refers to line 1 of the left-hand column of page 1094 of Bekker’s edition. It is standard to abbreviate Nicomachean Ethics as EN, based on its Greek title, Ethica Nicomachea. All quotations from Nicomachean Ethics are in W. D. Ross’ translation, unless otherwise stated.

W.D. Ross rendered “hexis” as a state of character. See David Ross, translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980).

Ibid., 18.

Cf. The Bhagavad Gītā defines yoga as the excellence in action (yogah. Karmasu kauśalam: Gītā 2.50). There is nothing uplifting about mediocrity.

See: Christopher Shields, “Aristotle,” The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2016 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://​plato.​stanford.​edu/​archives/​win2016/​entries/​aristotle/​>.

Ibid.

Golden Mean (philosophy), New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 21, 2016: http://​www.​newworldencyclop​edia.​org/​entry/​Golden_​mean_​(philosophy)

Paul Shorey’s translation slightly modified. [Emphasis added].

Ibid., 357. [Slightly modified].

The very last words of the Republic are, ‘We shall fare well.’ See: David Roochnik, Lectures on Plato’s Republic: ‘The Myth of Er’ and ‘Summary and Overview,’ Lecture no. 22 and 23. The Great Courses. Available at: https://​www.​thegreatcourses.​com/​courses/​plato-s-republic.​html

This masterly series of 24 lectures by Professor Roochnik are among the best in their class. Along with Professor Michael Sugrue’s 16 lectures titled “Plato, Socrates, and the Dialogues,” they constitute the best that the Great Courses Series had to offer. https://​www.​thegreatcourses.​com/​courses/​plato-socrates-and-the-dialogues.​html

Most public libraries carry these and they are also freely available on the net.