The First Philosopher: Performing Soul Surgery (Heroic +1 #1,964)

Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic one. In the last couple ones, we've been exploring wisdom from Donald Robertson's new book, how to Think Like Socrates. Let's continue that discussion. Today we're going to talk about the number one piece of wisdom from the first philosopher. Donald tells us, and I quote, virtue is the conventional translation for the Greek word arete. Modern academics tend to prefer excellence, as arete refers to those qualities that make something exceptionally good. A good table, for instance, is one that is sturdy, and even a good horse is one that is strong and fast. But what makes good humans? He continues by saying, what does it mean to live well and flourish? The Greek word used to denote this concept is eudaimonia. It's an unusual word and difficult to properly translate, but eudaimonia basically refers to the condition of someone who is living a good life, or rather the best possible life. It has traditionally been translated by the word happiness, but this derives from an outdated English usage. Happy once meant blessed or fortunate. There's still a trace of this earlier meaning in its antonym, hapless, which means wretched or unfortunate. Happiness in its original sense is the opposite of being hapless. Happiness is more than just a feeling. In other words, it's a state of being. Ann Donald tells us, a good therapist will tell you that there's a big difference between feeling good and being good, or even between feeling happy and being happy. It's an example of our tendency to confuse appearance and reality. Feeling good seems good to us. An addict, for instance, might be happy in the sense of feeling good, but be utterly hapless in the sense of living badly. The word eudaimonia, by contrast, means having a happy life in the sense of being fortunate or flourishing. And finally, he says, we no longer even have a satisfactory word in English to describe this concept, whereas the ancient Greek philosophers took it to be the most important thing in life. Maybe that's a sign that over the intervening centuries we've grown more complacent and more dependent on the opinion of others and neglect to reason for ourselves about the fundamental goal of life. End quote. That's from a chapter called the First Philosopher. As you know, if you've been following along Objective 1 in everything we do together, from the book, to basic training in the app, to our Heroic Coach program, to the heroic workshops our instructors give in their communities, is simple. We need to know the ultimate game. What's the ultimate game? Well, as the ancient Greek and Stoic philosophers tell us, we want to live with orte so we can experience eudaimonia. Or as the modern positive psychologist put it, we want to put our virtues in action so we can flourish. And I absolutely love the connection Donald makes between happiness in its original sense and its antonym. Hapless. I also love the distinction between feeling happy and being happy, which reminds me of Ward Farnsworth and his wisdom from the practicing Stoic. He tells us, Stoics regard virtue as sufficient to produce happiness on all occasions and also as necessary for it. The happiness centrally valued by the Stoic is eudaimonia, or well being, the good life rather than the good mood. But the Stoic believes that virtue gives rise to joy and to peace of mind as well. Virtue produces these good consequences as side effects. The primary mission of the Stoics, in other words, is to be helpful to others and serve the greater good. And they don't do this to make themselves happy. They do it because it is the right and natural way to live. But doing it in that spirit, as it turns out, makes them happy. Now let's connect this wisdom to the last couple plus ones and know this. The sophist acts like a confectioner. They'll pander to your desires to have a life of ease and luxury with zero effort. They'll sell you, get rich and get fit and get happy. Quick schemes that taste good and make you feel good in the moment, but aren't actually good for you. The philosopher, on the other hand, who wants you to actually be be good, will act less like a confectioner selling you candy and more like a doctor giving you bitter medicine that doesn't taste good in the moment but will lead to enduring happiness. This is why the old school Stoics would say that attending a lecture by a sophist would typically end in applause for the speaker and make you feel all fired up, whereas a lecture by a philosopher would end up in stunned silence. The sophist makes you feel like you got a nice relaxing massage. The philosopher makes you feel like you just had surgery. Here's to the micro soul surgeries that help us forge excellence so we can activate our heroic potentials.

What's up? This is Michael, president and head coach at Heroic. One quick note before we go. I just think it's so amazing that Brian keeps reading all these books and distilling them into more wisdom and less time. By the way, thank you Brian for continuing to to read the books to steal them for us. I love not having to read the book, just getting them more wisdom and less time. Through the plus ones of Philosopher's Notes. And if you're into this kind of thing, expressing the best version of yourself and using your greatest gifts make a positive impact on the world. Make sure you head to Heroic Us to check out all the other resources that we have available to you. You can download a bunch of free goodies, including Philosopher's Notes master classes in our scientifically proven Heroic app. You can also explore advanced resources to help you go next level, including live and virtual workshops, working one on one with a Heroic Performance coach, or even becoming a certified coach yourself as you master Heroic performance, the fundamentals of coaching Excellence, and Heroic Coaching prosperity. Again, head to Heroic Us to get the ancient wisdom, modern science, and practical tools you need to activate your potential and change the world together. And please do hit subscribe, appreciate you, have a fantastic day and see you again soon.