An (Ancient) New Theory of Happiness

Why virtue is the key to happiness you’ve never thought about

What is happiness? It’s a question so simple a 3-year-old would ask it and a question so complex it has kept scientists busy for centuries and philosophers busy for millennia.

One answer is offered by the Hedonists. They tell us that the good life is simply a question of feeling good and feeling bad. We can plot this on a simple line from pain to pleasure.; the closer you are to the pleasurable end of the scale, the better your life is.

But other philosophers aren’t satisfied by this. The trouble with this pain/pleasure map of the good life is that it lacks any relationship to consequences (which can’t be measured by a moment in time). If the good life was simply about pleasure then why not take out a bank loan and have a lot of fun — take heroin, go skydiving and party like there’s no tomorrow?

The answer is simple: because there are longer-term consequences to our actions. Today’s partying is tomorrow’s hangover.

We can map these consequences by adding another line running north-south from gain to loss. We can…