ABSTRACT
Ancient Greek philosophers had very different concepts of happiness and pleasure from the more materialistic and hedonistic ideas of the modern world. For this reason, many contemporary students read their books without really being able to comprehend their main message, which really viewed philosophy as a kind of religion. Indeed, Plato’s followers did start their own religion, which lasted for centuries and was incorporated into Stoicism and early Christianity. All of them rejected the idea that happiness came from money, material success, sex or physical pleasure, which are the basis for the modern mass consumption economy. That simply did not exist in ancient times, when most people survived in great poverty, at or below subsistence level. Life was nasty, brutal and short then, so the philosophers thought that true happiness could best be found by contemplating God, the immortal soul and eternal truths. Plato believed that society should be ruled by a sort of priestly caste of philosopher kings, while Aristotle was slightly more compatible with modern thought in that he argued young people could also learn to be happy by living lives of civic virtue and good citizenship. He preferred that philosophers withdraw from politics and devote themselves fully to contemplation, although he agreed with Socrates and Plato that the highest level of happiness could only be found in this kind of life.
As Jeffrey Tiel pointed out, all the ancient Greek philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle had quite similar concepts of happiness, but these were very different from those in the modern world. Western society today places a great deal of emphasis on materialism, consumerism and hedonism as being synonymous with happiness, which fits with the overall utilitarian definition that it should be defined as seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. For the ancient philosophers, this was actually the lowest possible level of human existence, which was associated with slaves, animals and the lower orders in general, while at the highest level philosophers obtained true happiness by seeking out truth, beauty, goodness and morality. Given that they lived in a caste system they were not at all democratic or believers in universal human rights, and thought that only the educated and enlightened few could become true philosophers. In The Republic, Plato thought that philosopher kings, trained from birth, should be the real rulers of society, since only they would be sufficiently enlightened to rule for the good of all. In Nichomachean Ethics Aristotle agreed that only the elite had the time and leisure to be philosophers, but thought that a secondary form of happiness could be found in participation in politics, good citizenship and the civic virtues, which he thought could also be learned in the same way that people developed good and bad habits. In this sense, Aristotle gave the best account of human happiness in ancient Greek philosophy because he believes it can be learned, but here again, his ideas in these areas were very different from those of the modern world. For the purposes of modern readers, though, his concepts were the best because he allows more space for civil life in the material or physical world than Plato, and therefore his republic was somewhat less authoritarian, although none of these philosophers were democrats in the modern sense.
In the world of the ancient Greek philosophers, citizenship was only for male property owners and heads of household, not for women, slaves, laborers and servants, who were all considered subordinate castes. They were very unlikely to obtain the type of education that would allow them to be considered true philosophers, although in The Republic Plato would have provided public education for women. These lower castes were generally considered to be slaves to their lusts, passions and narrow materialistic concerns, however, and were unlikely to develop either the civic or philosophical virtues. In Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle dismissed the more modern notion that happiness (eudaimonia) was synonymous with material success and personal pleasure. It cannot be emphasized enough that most of the ancient philosophers completely opposed the idea that happiness was materialistic or hedonistic, which makes them quite difficult to comprehend in the present-day world. Almost none of them would have sought happiness in food, alcohol, drugs, sex or money, and for both Aristotle and Plato the highest level of happiness could be found in contemplating spiritual matters related to God and the immortal soul. Aristotle added that many men could also find happiness in being good citizens and practicing virtuous habits, taking pleasure for public service that would benefit all members of society (Bartlett and Collins, 2011, p. 226-28). Aristotle believed that young people could be taught to be happy and take pleasure in living virtuous lives, provided that they were inculcated in such habits from childhood. Only very bad characters had to be controlled through fear, coercion and punishment, while good people would learn to love doing what was good. He also thought that Sparta was the most successful in teaching youth to be virtuous and did not simply permit them to do what they wanted (Bartlett and Collins, p. 229). For the very few who sought the ultimate pleasures of philosophical contemplation, they would most likely have to withdraw from politics and civic life to concentrate fully on spiritual matters (Bartlett and Collins, pp. 224-25).
Plato and Socrates agreed that the highest level of human pleasure and happiness came from philosophy, and went much further in their Idealism than Aristotle. They thought that the real world was not at all physical-material one emphasized by modern science, by the eternal, spiritual universe of God, the soul and the Perfect Forms. Most people were not aware of these as they went about their narrow lives, seeking money and pleasure on the material level, but for Plato all this was just a shadow of the real world and not to be confused with the ultimate reality (Plato 2008). Most people were like prisoners in a cave who saw only the shadows and illusions, but this was false awareness. Although the physical world did exist, it was only temporary, and did not provide any of the ultimate truths that philosophers were seeking (Ahbel-Rappe 2009). Happiness and pleasure that people found in sex, friendship, and physical beauty and relationships were also very transitory compared to contemplation of God, the soul and universal or eternal Truths (Gil 1999, pp. 19-20). Socrates also insisted that real philosophy could only take place by breaking with the commonplace and conventional ideas of society, even at the risk of one’s life. Men could only find true happiness in “thinking and talking about questions of principle” (Wilson, 2007, p. 34). Since the soul was immortal and only the physical body died, there was no reason to fear death, pain or physical punishment, and the worst kind of evil was to deny the truth and morality found in philosophy. Socrates was sentenced to death in Athens, and accepted the punishment joyfully, stating that “I will never behave differently, not even if I were going to die many times over” (Wilson, p. 50).
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were products of a very different type of culture and society from that of the modern world, and their ideas about happiness and pleasure are quite difficult for many people to comprehend because they do not understand this basic fact. They would have viewed a society based on mass consumption, hedonism, success and physical pleasure as basically slave-like or animalistic. True philosophy to them was more like a religion, which of course is why later Christian thinkers like Augustine accepted so much of the ancient Greek philosophy, particularly the monotheism and Idealism of Plato and Socrates. For them, the greatest pleasure and happiness in life came from contemplating God and eternal truths, and they thought that philosophers should also rule society as a kind of priestly class. Aristotle agreed that the greatest happiness in life came from philosophy, although he did not envision philosophers as taking control of the state. At least for males who owned property, he imagined that they could be taught from a young age to take pleasure in their civic duties and living lives as virtuous and useful citizens. Plato was more authoritarian and thought that the ignorant and slave-like masses could only be ruled by the enlightened elite. None of them believed in democracy or equal citizenship for all, but then almost no one did before modern times. They thought that the masses of people were too narrow, ignorant and limited to control the state, and for Plato in particular the execution of Socrates in ‘democratic’ Athens proved that the ‘mob’ could not be trusted. From a purely modern point of view, Aristotle provided slightly more space for a virtuous citizenry, provided they were properly trained from a young age, which meant that they would find happiness in doing good and living lives of sobriety and moderation rather than seeking after money, material success and physical pleasure. They would certainly have held the more modern philosophies in contempt, though, especially those that denied higher spiritual and moral truths or emphasized individual rights, freedoms and pleasures over the good of the state and the larger society.
REFERENCES
Ahbel-Rappe, S. (2009). Socrates: A Guide for the Perplexed. Continuum International Publishing Group.
Bartlett, R.C. and S.D. Collins. (2011). Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. University of Chicago Press.
Gil, C. (1999). Plato: The Symposium. Penguin Classics.
Plato (2008). The Republic. NY: Cosimo, Inc.
Tiel, J. (2012). Philosophy of Human Nature. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
Wilson, E. R. (2007). The Death of Socrates. Profile Books Ltd.
