Posted by Supposing that you were able to identify what’s worth living for within a story you didn’t make up. (Read: “Think for yourself” and “Find a bigger story”). There’s still the small matter of living it out. We’ve considered Socrates and Plato, keeping tracking with the evolution of humanity’s thinking about purpose, let’s flip to Aristotle. Apart from Jesus Christ and the New Testament, there is nobody whose teaching has been more reviewed, more considered, more influential than that of Aristotle. Jesus had a lot to say about purpose, I’ll write something about that next. But Aristotle for today. In the opening lines to his biggest book, Aristotle raises the issue of purpose. He connects it to the question of goodness, the question of reality and then to our everyday experiences.
Here’s what he says (paraphrased):
Every sort of knowledge and enquiry and every action and undertaking (in other words everything we do) seems to seek some goodness. The good is ‘that which all things seek’ – but there appears to be certain differences among ends (we might say goals or objectives); some are activities, while others are products of some kind, over and above the activities (in other words most things we wish for are for the sake of our wishes for something higher and something higher again and so on).
He’s saying – almost everything we do can be explained by reference to the expected outcome of those actions. We do X, because Y will result – upon having Y, Z becomes possible and so on. For example, when I was young, I practiced rugby in the garden. I practiced rugby in the garden because I wanted to play for Ireland. I wanted to play for Ireland so I could be famous. I wanted to be famous because…best not to answer that.
But then says Aristotle; if there is some end in all our work that we wish for because of itself, wishing for all the other things we wish for because of it alone – this will the chief good. “If we could know it, it would have great significance – like archers with a target we would be so much more successful in hitting the point if we had this knowledge. We must try to grasp what this good might be.”
We need to grapple and grasp and work out what the thing which is – or should be – motivating us above all actually is. And you grapple like this Aristotle says. You play something like “The Why Game” with yourself. Why were you home late the other night? Maybe finishing a big project at work. Why’s it big? Because not screwing up means you’re next in line for promotion. Why do you want to be promoted? Well – you want a bigger house. Why do you want a bigger house – to support a bigger family – and so on and so forth – further and further we go. Each “why” question penetrates more and more as we approach whatever the ultimate driving purpose in our lives may be.
What we quickly notice is that there is something occupying that top spot whether or not we realised it. We want it to be the good thing that we thought was worth living for and which in reality is worth striving for above all else – but is it? Is there something else which has crept in, or which we’ve put there deliberately against our better judgement? There are all sorts of things which could occupy top spot. Security, wealth, husband, wife, children, girlfriend, boyfriend, career, the environment, charitable causes, voluntary work, our character, earning power, qualifications, status in society – what order would you put them in? What is right at the top for you?
Living Telos 