Ancient Philosophy and Virtue Ethics. A recipe for personal, social and economic thriving.
Life is a wonderful learning and growing opportunity. When we realize that true inner peace is achieved through introspection and contemplation, instead of consumption and distraction, life changes completely, and beauty manifests itself unexpectedly. I guess this aha moment appears to different people in different ways. Mine was spurred by philosophy, and, by sharing my humble experience, I simply hope to open a window of reflection. If it adds value to one person, it will be worth the time and effort to write these lines.
In my experience, philosophy’s transformative effect did not appear through a purely cerebral, intellectual approach. Reading the Sages fed my soul with momentary beauty, but it dissipated with daily problems, until I started to embed their timeless wisdom, to put it into practice, continuously failing but standing up and re-trying. Until I tried to make it a way of life. Hence my love for Ancient Philosophy. The French philosopher Pierre Hadot perfectly describes the distinction between philosophy as “theoretical discourse” and philosophy as “a way of life”:
Ancient philosophy proposed to mankind an art of living. By contrast, modern philosophy appears above all as the construction of a technical jargon reserved for specialists.
As he explains in his book Philosophy as a way of life, to be a philosopher in the ancient world involved much more than becoming good at reasoning, analysis, rhetoric, and writing. It meant constantly practicing spiritual exercises to turn life into a progressive path of self-improvement towards the ideal of the wise and virtuous eudaimonic life.
A bit like embracing Kaizen (continuous improvement) through an open, humble and curious Shoshin (beginners mind) and opening our lives to Ikigai (purpose and fulfilment), in beautiful eastern, Japanese terms.
I love Ancient Philosophy, in particular Moral Philosophy, and within it Virtue Ethics, because it focuses on being rather than doing.
Unlike other normative ethics of deontological (adhering to universal ethical principles) or consequential (basing the morality of an action upon its outcome) origin, Virtue Ethics centres on character. It embraces a life-long journey of practice to acquire virtuous habits and develop the best possible character, the best possible version of ourselves. Paraphrasing Aristotle:
We are what we repeatedly do.
Virtue Ethics began with Socrates, and continued with Plato, Aristotle, and my favourites, the Stoics. The latter practiced the four Socratic virtues: wisdom (phronēsis), courage (andreíā), justice (dikaiosyne) and temperance (sophrosyne) to build a virtuous character (ethos) and achieve eudaimonia, excellence (arête) and happiness. I love it because goodness was considered the highest form of intelligence; the ideal, role model and wisest person was the Sage (Sophos) who had the knowledge of the good. I wish this were the case still today…
But why do I care so much about this inner transformation? About building this virtuous character?
The answer is threefold: personal, societal and economic.
Firstly, because it leads to personal happiness and inner peace. Lou Marinoff’s book Plato, Not Prozac! (which I highly recommend) testifies to the practical benefits of philosophy in everyday life. It is no surprise that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) has the Stoics to thank for inspiring this field.
Secondly, and most importantly, because personal happiness and inner peace lead to social harmony. A virtuous character helps us think clearly and act ethically. It increases our empathy and our collective consciousness, having an incredible positive ripple effect on other beings and nature. Empathy creates more empathy, kindness breeds more kindness, generosity is contagious, and so on.
Paraphrasing Epictetus: Seeking the very best in ourselves means actively caring for the welfare of other human beings.
As Professor Massimo Pigliucci beautifully explains in his book How to be a Stoic (another book recommendation here!), from Aristotle’s view that we are by nature both social and rational (Zoon Politikon), the Stoics emphasized even further the application of reason to social living. Whereas Aristotle thought that contemplation was the highest purpose of human life, the Stoics shifted the emphasis towards the social, arguing that the purpose was to use reason to build the best society we can. By living a virtuous life, we will not only achieve peace of mind (ataraxia) but we will also improve the lives of those around us.
Thirdly, the change towards a sustainable economic model requires a cognitive, behavioural, motivational and cultural change by companies, consumers and investors. In other words, by individuals and the systems they form. We need a new philosophical thought for us to be able to embrace new values, new behaviours and new worldviews.
Although economics seems worlds apart from philosophy, both disciplines are intertwined because the former proposes answers to Moral Philosophy’s questions: (1) the nature of the human being, (2) the purpose in life and (3) how we should behave. Today’s answers are inadequate and philosophy can be a wonderful starting point for the much needed paradigm change: (1) on nature, from Homo Economicus to Homo Altruistic; (2) on purpose, from financial gain to shared value; (3) on how to behave, from pursuing “self-interest” (Adam Smith) to practicing virtues (wisdom, courage, justice and temperance) to maximize public good. It is difficult for an economy to malfunction if these new answers prevail.
Economics was born as a branch of Moral Philosophy and it must return to its roots, and this will be topic of our next Finance & Philosophy chapter.
To conclude…
With Ancient Philosophy, we can enhance our own lives but we can also light up the ones around us. We live in societies struck by anger, anxiety, depression and loneliness. Our very existence is threatened by war and climate change. We have come up with theoretical solutions to these problems, such as the UN’s SDGs, but outer behavioural change will be real and lasting only if there is inner transformation in the first place.
Philosophy’s positive ripple effect is needed more than ever. With Ancient Philosophy and Virtue Ethics, we can spur a pandemic of kindness, empathy and compassion to face the future with less competitive and narcissistic individualism and more cooperative and collective consciousness.
