Your Concept of Morals Is Flawed
Let us redefine our understanding of morals for a better experience
The general account of examining morals is through the lens of whether any given conduct is good or bad.
Someone is thought of as having high moral standards if they have high principles and proper conduct.
We see it all the time in people who tell us to behave “professionally”.
People are expected to behave a certain way if they are to score high on the scale of morality. Deviate from that and you are punished.
Those who stay in those confines often have to resist or kill parts of their well-being to keep saving face.
Sexuality is a big one.
The public still struggles to accept non-heterosexual relationships because these relationships are thought of as having low/no moral standards.
Generally, as human beings, we put all our efforts towards chasing pleasure, or what we perceive as pleasurable.
Things that are considered good by society are rewarded and therefore pleasurable or desired.
But the ultimate indicator of a good life is happiness.
We can fake the steps, hide behind false identities but when we are alone with our thoughts, it's about what truly makes us happy that we keep chasing.
This is important to understand because moral standards are some of society’s guidelines towards living a good life and consequently a happy one.
High moral standards however do not always translate to a happy life. Simply because of excessive dependence on them.
In this article, let us attempt to redefine what morals mean and how we can use them to build truly happier lives.
What does happiness mean?
The general account of happiness is quite simply about being excellent at the activity of being human.
Thriving at being human would be, mastering yourself, your desires, your wills, and bending them to get what you want. With these, you’d be happy.
The work that gets you closer to that ideal is cultivating noble virtues through reasoning and acting according to reason. I’ve written about this already.
Therefore the activity of being human is rational activity.
This is Aristotle’s function argument. You already know where I am going with this. We are diving deep into philosophy here.
Morality is not what you think
When Aristotle talks about morals, he isn’t smuggling in the conventional morals that are good for society, God, or your mom.
Much like the 2000+ years of Christianity have distorted the original teachings, the word moral in the way Aristotle talks about it is more like character, not constructs of good and bad.
Character is not about evaluating your morals but rather a description of the way you typically behave.
Therefore, when Aristotle talks about moral virtue, he is referring to a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a suitable/ “good habit” that he calls the mean. (We will discuss “the mean” later in this article).
Therefore, trying to figure out what moral virtue is has a lot to do with figuring out what it is that makes habits good.
Habits fall on a scale with opposites of deficiency and excessiveness.
The middle of this scale is where we find what Aristotle calls an “excellent habit”. He also refers to this middle as the mean.
He says…
“Virtue, then, is a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean. i.e. the mean relative to us, this being determined by a rational principle, and by that principle by with the person of practical wisdom would determine it.”
The mean that Aristotle talks about here is one that lies between extremes.
In other words, an excellent habit would be something that is good for you when done in the right amount. — This is the mean.
When we talk about having an excellent habit, and more importantly how we develop excellent habits, there are two things to consider.
- Doing things the right way.
- Doing those things in the right amount.
Let us begin our examination with Aristotle’s favorite virtue — Courage.
Courage would be the mean.
But if someone lacks courage, then they will have cowardice. If another person has excessive courage, then that would be foolhardiness.
Note that the virtue here is not a habit but the virtue is the excellence of the habit. — Remember, excellence of the habit is to have the mean virtue.
Let’s take another example of our work as writers.
Excellence in being a good writer requires consistent work.
If you habitually overwork yourself, then you are a workaholic and you’d soon burn out. If you underwork, you sooner or later become a couch potato.
One last example. The excellence of responding to delays is patience. Patience is the mean.
If you habitually rush into getting things done, then you are impatient. But if you habitually wait for too long, then you are passive.
Virtues also do not just talk about the conventional ways we think about morals — good or bad.
We have to think about the habits in our lives the same way. Therefore, these rules apply to eating, sleeping, exercising, reading, socializing …
All of these are under the umbrella of moral activity according to Aristotle’s philosophies on morals.
Therefore, as much as exercising is good and required, you have to avoid the extremes of exercising too much or too little.
Redefining morals
Therefore, looking at morals through this lens, we are looking at morals as habits.
Good habits or good morals are a combination of things that are good for you and those that feel good.
Good habits = What is good for you + What feels good to do
When you chase pleasure, trouble follows. When you chase what is good for us, then pleasure comes with it.
You might feel good when doing something that is unhealthy.
Like overworking yourself because you think people would admire your work ethic or because you want to make more money.
In the conventional sense of looking at morals, you will be held as a shining example of what a hardworking and responsible person should be like.
But eventually, trouble follows in a way that you develop unnecessary stress or burnout that can be catastrophic.
Habits that are good for you will make you thrive or live well. If you live well, you are habitually going to feel good. This is the account of moral virtue.
Living in a way that is good for you and feels good defines happiness. That then defines morals.