A short Optimize +1 podcast episode (hosted by Brian Johnson) exploring Aristotle’s notion of happiness (eudaimonia) defined as "virtuous activity of the soul," encouraging listeners to act from their best self and briefly promoting the Optimize membership (philosopher's notes and masterclasses).
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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last plus one, we talked about Aristotle's Nicomachean ethics and the fact that his word for happiness was very different than our word. Eudaimonia, as we discussed, literally means good soul and implies a powerful sense of actualizing our potential, succeeding in expressing the best within ourselves. Today we're going to focus on how Aristotle teaches us to create that type of happiness. Pop quiz. Can you guess?
What would you guess?
Pop answer. In a word, virtue. In a Greek word, arete. Aristotle tells us that the only way to have a good soul and experience the deepest sense of well being and happiness is to essentially express the best version of yourself moment to moment to moment to live with virtue or arete. Here's how he puts it. But what is happiness? If we consider what the function of man is, we find he says that happiness is a virtuous activity of the soul. Virtuous activity of the soul. Isn't that beautiful? I'm going to say it one more time. Virtuous activity of the soul. Just for a moment, imagine a culture in which our sense of happiness was grounded in a commitment to virtuous activity of the soul. Then imagine your life in which your happiness was connected to the virtuous activity of your soul. Well, what's that mean? We'll talk more about how to hit that target via Aristotle's doctrine of the mean tomorrow. For now, at a choice point today, just ask yourself, what would my soul like me to do right now? What would virtuous activity of the best within me look like? Then of course, have fun high fiving your inner soul as you rock it.
Hey, this is Brian with a quick question for you. Do you know what the word optimize literally means? It's from the Latin optimus, which means the best. In our case, we're talking about helping you create the best version of you. So another quick question. What's the best version of you look like? How does that version of you show up in the world? Helping you be that version of yourself all day, every day is what our Optimize membership program is all about. Now, we obviously give away a ton of content for free and we give our 10,000 plus premium members a ton more. Members get hundreds of philosopher's notes, which are 20 minute book summaries that help you apply the best big ideas from the best Optimal living books to your life today plus members get dozens of hour long optimal living 101 masterclasses. More wisdom in less time for your busy life on everything from the science of setting and achieving goals, how to optimize your energy via the fundamentals of nutrition, movement, sleep and meditation, and how to be super productive day in and day out. While of course enjoying the whole process, every facet of your life optimized equals you at your absolute best.
