(Aristotle 3) What it is to be Human and Live a Meaningful Life - for Aristotle 

What I feel does not depend on a desire that originates in the isolation of my own subjective life. If I see my children are thriving I am happy as a father. If I see my students learning, I am happy as a teacher. If someone tried to damage my reputation – say, because I am a “white man” and they were resentful – then I would be indignant not only as an individual but as a teacher, as a member of the teaching practice. What I feel as a member of a community – a family is the primal community –  is never just as an individual.

. . .

I want at some point to think of how Aristotle would respond to Tolstoy’s story The Death of Ivan Ilych. Ivan was a judge in 19^th century Tsarist Russia. He is a conformist. His values, desires, and behavior are wholly determined by the opinions and expectations of his social superiors. He chooses his friends based upon their social standing. He decides to marry because it is considered the right thing to do. Ivan's life is terrible and empty as he realizes when he becomes mortally ill.

   Aristotle could not recognize the society to which Ivan conformed as a corruption of something necessary for any human being to thrive.  Corrupt because its members saw it only as a means to the end of personal wealth and status – individual goods that can theoretically be had in other ways in different circumstances. No community exists, but rather a social game with rules for advancement. The game itself has no other value than to allow the winners to shine. So of course Aristotle would agree with Ivan’s assessment after his illness that his life had been fake and empty:

It is as if I had been going downhill while I imagined I was going up. And that is really what it was. I was going up in public opinion, but to the same extent life was ebbing away from me. And now it is all done and there is only death. (chapter 9)

   The life devoted to so-called external goods – prestige and comfort – leads to meaninglessness for Aristotle, though that is a modern way of putting it: Aristotle might have said it is contrary to nature and thus reason or that it prevented a human being from becoming what a human being ought to be. The distinction between “internal” and “external” goods – and the right attitude towards each – is crucial for a meaningful life.

  Internal goods are benefits or outcomes that are intrinsic to a particular practice, activity, or community. These goods are directly related to the nature and purpose of the practice itself and are achieved through engagement and excellence within that practice. They are valued not just for what they enable but for their own sake, contributing to the fulfillment and integrity of the activity. Here are the essential, defining features of intrinsic goods.

·        Internal goods are valued for their inherent qualities and contributions to the practice. They are inherently good and desirable within the context of the activity.

·        Achieving internal goods typically requires a high level of skill, competence, and commitment to the standards of excellence specific to the practice. They often result from sustained effort and dedication.

·        Internal goods are unique to the particular activity or community. For example, the sense of artistic achievement in music, the development of strategic thinking in chess, or the pursuit of truth in scientific inquiry.

·        Engaging in practices that yield internal goods contributes to developing of virtues and personal growth. It shapes character and fosters qualities like discipline, integrity, and creativity. To be a part of any community a person needs to learn to be just and to acquire a degree of commonsense wisdom pertaining to life in that community.

·        Internal goods often have a communal aspect, where the benefits are not just individual but shared among those who participate in the practice. This can include mutual respect among practitioners.

 

For example, I asked ChatGPT to list some internal good of playing an instrument - amazingly, I couldn't have done it much better myself.

 

·        Musical Skill and Mastery: Developing technical proficiency and expressive capabilities on an instrument is a primary internal good. This includes understanding music theory, improving finger dexterity, and mastering techniques specific to the instrument.

 

·        Aesthetic Appreciation and Creativity: The ability to appreciate and create beautiful music is an internal good. This involves interpreting and performing pieces with emotional depth and creativity, contributing to the artistic value of the music.

 

·        Personal Fulfillment and Joy: The sense of personal satisfaction, enjoyment, and fulfillment that comes from playing music is an internal good. This intrinsic pleasure is derived from engaging deeply with the music and the instrument.

 

·        Discipline and Focus: The development of discipline, concentration, and focus through regular practice and dedication is an internal good. These qualities are essential for improving as a musician and are cultivated through the practice itself.

 

·        Expressive Communication: The ability to communicate emotions and ideas through music is an internal good. Musicians can express themselves and connect with others on an emotional level through their performance.

 

·        Sense of Achievement: The accomplishment of mastering a difficult piece or improving one’s skills provides a sense of achievement and pride, which is an internal good.

 

·        Cognitive and Emotional Growth: Playing an instrument enhances cognitive abilities, such as memory and problem-solving skills, and emotional intelligence, as musicians learn to express and manage their emotions through music.

 

·        Community and Collaboration: Engaging in musical activities often involves collaboration with others, such as playing in a band or orchestra. The sense of community, teamwork, and shared purpose are internal goods that enrich the musical experience.

 

And here are some internal goods you only get from participating in the political life; I had to modify these:

 

·        Politics fosters the key virtues of justice (towards individuals and the common good of the community), practical wisdom, self-restraint, and courage – virtues essential to becoming a good human being for Aristotle.

·        Politics encourages individuals to analyze information critically, evaluate arguments, and assess the validity of different perspectives. This ability is essential for making informed decisions and navigating complex political issues.

·        Participation in politics involves persuading others, building coalitions, and negotiating compromises to advance one's goals and interests. Developing a competence in rhetoric fosters effective communication and consensus-building.

·        Politics provides opportunities for individuals to take on leadership roles, inspire others, and mobilize support for collective action. Effective leadership in politics requires vision, integrity, and the ability to motivate and empower others.

·        Politics requires strategic planning, goal setting, and tactical execution to achieve desired outcomes. Developing strategic thinking skills helps individuals anticipate challenges, identify opportunities, and plan effective strategies.

·        Real politics fosters empathy and understanding by exposing individuals to diverse perspectives, experiences, and viewpoints. Engaging with different communities and hearing their concerns helps cultivate compassion and solidarity.

 

·        Politics often involves managing conflicts, resolving disputes, and finding common ground among conflicting interests. Developing conflict resolution skills helps individuals navigate disagreements constructively and promote reconciliation. Genuine politics forces you to develop a sense of proportion.

·        Politics raises ethical questions and dilemmas that require individuals to consider the moral implications of their actions and decisions. Cultivating ethical awareness and integrity is essential for responsible political engagement. Without integrity, a politician will become corrupt.

·        Politics can be challenging and demanding, requiring individuals to withstand criticism, setbacks, and obstacles. Developing resilience and perseverance enables individuals to stay committed to their principles and goals despite adversity.

·        Political landscapes are dynamic and constantly evolving, requiring individuals to adapt to changing circumstances, unexpected events, and new challenges. Cultivating adaptability and flexibility enhances individuals' ability to navigate uncertainty and respond effectively to changing political environments.

·        Engaging in politics instills a sense of civic responsibility and duty to participate in the democratic process, uphold democratic values, and contribute to the welfare of society. Embracing civic responsibility is essential.

 

In political life, we realize our full humanity for Aristotle. [The political life for Aristotle is synonymous with democratic politics, defined as equal dignity among free (i.e. not economically a serf/peasant) native-born men.] The highest virtues are courage, justice, self-restraint (or moderation, a sense of proportion), and practical wisdom (an intimate familiarity with one’s community and the ability to understand priorities and reflect on the best means to achieve them). These are the preeminent human virtues. In politics everything is at stake. If your chess club or baseball league is dissolved, that impoverishes your life; if Alexander the (so-called) Great dissolves your political community, the world ends, the very possibility of a certain kind of human being – for Aristotle the best – ends. Human nature, to flourish, requires the best kind of political community. To this extent, democratic politics is the natural form of political association. Still, to the extent they depend on a community tradition, private practices like chess and sports require their members to cease being a purely private self. In chess communities, justice takes the form of fair play, respectful behavior, etc.

     It requires a near-total transformation: it is no longer what I want or what is good for me as a private individual; it is about what is good for the political community as a whole. To the extent you experience a conflict between purely private and public interests, you have not completed this transformation and are a pre-political, private self – a lesser self for Aristotle. This experience is hardly possible for us given the way our political life is structured. But in sports or the military we can understand it. Some of us still criticize players for ‘selling out’ as opposed to being loyal to a team and the community that supports it. (I recall the hostility of University of Kentucky basketball fans when their beloved coach agreed to become coach of their arch-rivals.) Many soldiers have a hard time even thinking of personal honor as opposed to the honor of the regiment.

   Essential is this: the self as transformed by community practice is richer, more human than the purely private self that weighs everything by purely private gain, that is purely transactional in the way a Trump is. It is more human. You are more human as a basketball player on the University of Kentucky’s 1978 championship basketball team than Donald Trump because you are good at something (complex as it is to ‘be good’ at something) either by being minimally competent or by exceptional achievements. And you are able to be a member of a team or club or practice, either in a minimally competent or exceptional way (I hear the late Bill Walton was an exceptional teammate – which is to say he excelled at those virtues needed to bond with others.)

 

   The purely private self, the un-bonded self, of course, cannot understand or value internal goods or virtues, since they stand on the outside of any form of community practice or community life. They are like dogs watching TV. Like Trump here:

In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as “suckers” for getting killed.

You can only understand the distinction between internal and external goods, and the value of each, from a position inside a community practice, just like you can only understand and appreciate a game of chess between two masters if you are already quite proficient yourself; or understand and appreciate a Bach fugue only if you already have a highly educated ‘ear.’ You might still ‘like’ a chess match between masters or a Bach fugue without this background, but not for the same reasons, not for intrinsic reasons.

   The purely private, unsublimated self knows only external goods. For the private self, value is a function of desire, and desire is disconnected from anything beyond it – or rather, what is beyond it only has value relative to the self. If is hard to imagine, say, a basketball player who has the discipline to spend the time and effort needed to achieve excellence in the game, but for whom the game meant nothing but a means to get money, fame, and beautiful women; who when he could get those things without basketball, he would do it. In our system it is much easier to image a politician who is in it only for the wealth, fame, and power. A usurer makes the pursuit of an external good – money – his life’s purpose.

    Usury is not a practice like basketball or teaching, though it does make sense to say a person is a better or worse usurer. The key distinction between practices that have internal or intrinsic goods valued in themselves and practices like mafia money-making or usurious banking lies in the nature of the goods pursued and the ethical framework within which the practices are conducted. In humanly enriching practices, internal goods are inherently valuable and contribute to human flourishing. Examples include truth in science, justice in law, and artistic expression in the arts. The purpose of engaging in virtuous practices is to realize and embody the intrinsic goods they offer. For example, a scientist seeks to discover truth, a musician aims to create beauty, and a judge strives for justice.  These goods are pursued for their own sake and are aligned with the development of virtues and personal growth. Practices with true internal goods operate within a moral and ethical framework that promotes the well-being of individuals and communities. They aim to cultivate virtues such as honesty, fairness, and sometimes even compassion. Indeed, virtuous practices are generally recognized and esteemed by society: even if I can’t appreciate certain sports, say, I can still recognize their value. Achieving excellence in such practices is socially rewarded and admired because it aligns with collective values and contributes to the common good. Engaging in practices with internal goods fosters the development of virtues such as wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice. These virtues contribute to a richer life, and are thus honorable in themselves.

     In stark contrast, practices like mafia money-making or usurious banking seek purely instrumental-external goods (e.g., wealth, power) that leave the purely private self – the fat, relentless ego – as covetous as ever. They may well involve actions that are harmful, exploitative, or unjust. In such practices, the primary motivation is often extrinsic, such as acquiring money, power, or control, rather than realizing intrinsic goods. The practice serves as a means to an end rather than being valuable in itself. Group activities driven by getting money, power, or purely physical pleasure foster vices like greed, dishonesty, and ruthlessness. These are corrosive of character and corrupt our better natures.

    The purely private self treats all practices as means-to-ends. For Aristotle, the extent to which people resemble the purely private self is like a rose bush that has been poisoned and can bring forth only sick, ugly blossoms. Or a poisoned fruit tree whose fruit cannot be enjoyed.

  [In my uncompletely dissertation, I connected this Aristotelian line of thought to Marx’ thoughts on alienation. A very concise summary: Capitalist work and business is premised on maximizing the acquisition of external goods (money above all). Efficiency replaces the pursuit of internal goods. Whereas the traditional craftsman was part of a community practice in every sense – with its own set of internal goods – factory labor reduced the worker to a commodity and a tool. That is a paradigm for all kinds of capitalist work and leisure. Thus capitalist economics and the social and ideological forms that are in tune with it deprive most of us of the opportunity to realize our full humanity. Deprived also of the chance to transcend our pre-political, private self (the fat, relentless ego) and blossom into something closer to real humanity. It is not impossible in capitalist society, but it is almost only through a difficult rebellion against capitalist norms that a person moves in the direction of real humanity in Aristotle’s sense. Thus capitalist society is “unnatural” – hostile to human nature, though not as much so as, say, Stalinism or Naziism. Some space remains for humanity, though that space is getting smaller with every generation. This goes some way in explaining the fact that so many moderns cannot experience their lives as meaningful. ]

. . .

The worth of a member has two aspects: each member is owed respect as a member, which means as someone who has acquired the basic abilities to be in that community / practice and who shares with others a genuine love or devotion for it. Thus every member of a basketball team (or the Athenian polis) is owed respect. Secondly, a person is valued for their achievements in the community / practice. Thus Michael Jordan or Magnus Carleson have a degree of honor over and above that due to those who just belong to the basketball or chess community.

    This points to the limit of Aristotelian ethical-political thought. Respect, self-worth is a function of a certain kind of community. I played American football, so I will use that experience as an analogy. Every member of the team I respected. We all went through the difficult practices. We all had to have a certain kind of courage: to be hit hard, for example, or endure significant physical distress. Thus there was a gap between someone on the team who was owed this respect, and those who were not on the team, who weren’t. Perhaps these others were owed respect for belonging to other valuable practices: those who were academically strong, those who were musically competent and played in the school band, etc. But what about those on the outside of all such practices? The – relative to the school community – purely private selves? The ones who thus achieved nothing, or nothing the community recognized as valuable? The ones in my school who took to dealing in drugs perhaps? How would Aristotle think of them? Well the answer is clear: not much. He would consider them lesser human beings or lesser worth. They have impoverished lives, underdeveloped potentials (or by nature gift-less); are therefore lesser human beings. They have no ‘honor.’ Nothing intrinsic to mere humanity confers value on them. It would thus be no violation of their reality to treat them with a certain indifference, or even subordinate them in a way that they would at least be useful to the community.

   I guess you – like me – do not feel entirely comfortable with this implication of Aristotle’s thought. I also suppose you recognize it as a way we do feel about such people, and at some level about ourselves to the extent we fit the description. 

   Tolstoy points to another light in which to see humanity in The Death of Ivan Ilych. I want to think about that soon.