Engaging with American Democracy » September 16th: The Pursuit of Happiness

September 16th: The Pursuit of Happiness

Plan for the Day

  • Heads up on the next three weeks
  • Discussion Post #3–Due Friday, 9/19, 11:07pm
  • Philosophy and the Founding Fathers
  • What is the Good Life?
  • Justice Louis Brandeis on Freedom of Speech (time permitting)
  • Democracy/Liberty/Freedom/ETC. quotation:
    • “…all constitutions, except the best one of all, are destroyed both by not being pushed far enough and by being pushed too far. Thus, democracy loses its vigour, and finally passes into oligarchy, not only when it is not pushed far enough, but also when it is pushed a great deal too far…”
      –Aristotle. On Rhetoric. Chapter 4-[1360b, para. 8].

Philosophers to Consider

Today’s reading mentions several philosophers, and I thought it might help giving a little background on them. This isn’t supposed to be exhaustive but introductory.

  • Plato
  • Aristotle
    • I consider him the great organizer setting down rhetorical theory.
    • “Let rhetoric be [defined as] an ability, in each [particular] case, to see the available means of persuasion” (1.2.1, Kennedy p. 37; Part 2, para. 1 Online)
  • Pythagoras
  • Xenophon
    • Famous military leader and student of Socrates
  • Plutarch
    • Important intermediary between Greek and Roman empires as Rome becomes dominant
    • He’s got a Platonic side and a pseudo-Stoic vibe, but is best know for the histories/biographies he wrote.
  • Cicero
    • In Italian, a cicerone is derived from Cicero and means a tour guide, but it can also be pejorative and mean know-it-all.

Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations

This philosophical treatise is prominent for Rosen’s argument on how the Founding Fathers considered “the pursuit of happiness” to be based on virtue. It’s actually five books, and their descriptions are worth considering:

“The first book teaches us how to [treat with contempt] the terrors of death, and to look upon it as a blessing rather than an evil;

“The second, to support pain and affliction with a manly fortitude;

“The third, to appease all our complaints and uneasinesses under the accidents of life;

“The fourth, to moderate all our other passions;

“And the fifth explains the sufficiency of virtue to make men happy.”

—Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations. Translated by C.D. Yonge, Harper & Brothers, 1877, p. 7.

The book is set up as a series of Socratic point-counterpoints. The goal to life is to be virtuous, and one gets there through moderating oneself and not giving over to passions. Cicero sets readers up to accept in Book V the virtue is key to happiness. Of course, Cicero is a philosophy, and it’s important to know that term means “love of wisdom” (philo meaning “love”; sophy meaning “wsdom”). The ability to head out of town to a villa to engross oneself in philosophical study is reserved for the elite, and Marcus Tullius Cicero was an elite Roman.

Cicero is generally lumped in with the school of Stoicism, which has been getting more popular attention recently. Broadly, stoics believe in order, specifically, a rational order to the universe that creates equllibrium, balance, and harmony. Consider the contemporary raise of interest in the following:

  • Self-help literature
  • Self-discipline routines
  • Road Rage
  • Sulprizio, Chiara. “Why is Stoicism Having a Cultural Moment?” Medium.com. 17 August 2015.
    • para. 5: “Ancient Stoics were all about living in the moment, a goal achieved by cultivating self-control and self-awareness through meditative practices.”
    • “They ‘thought about thinking’ by considering their emotions from a rational perspective, reflecting on the ethics of their decisions, and constantly reminding themselves that while they had no power over what happened in life, they did have power over their responses to it.”

Questions to Ponder

  • Why would the Founding Fathers have an affinity for this philosophical school?
  • What is the role of education in this early American “bro culture”?
  • Why does moderation seem to be valued, and where else does this arise in American culture?

Jeffrey Rosen’s Ch. 1: “Order: Twelve Virtues and the Pursuit of Happiness”

Rosen’s entire book examines the philosophical influences on the key founding fathers, especially Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Adams. Although I didn’t assign the entire book, this introductory chapter offers great insight into the intellectual influences of the founders, including their obsession with living the good life (check out Tony Bennett’s lyrics).

  • p. 2: “[Benjamin] Franklin’s conclusion was that ‘without Virtue Man can have no Happiness in this World.'”
    • Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations:
      O philosophy, guide of life! O searcher out of virtue and exterminator of vice! One day spent well and in accordance with thy precepts is worth an immortality of sin.”
      —Book 5, II, p. 164
  • p. 3: Jefferson’s advice to Amos J. Cook
    • “[I]f the Wise, be the happy man, as these sages say, he must be virtuous too; for without virtue, happiness cannot be.”
    • A different translation of the long quote on Rosen’s p. 3
      “Whoever, then, through moderation and constancy, is at rest in his mind, and in calm possession of himself, so as neither to pine with care, nor be dejected with fear, nor to be inflamed with desire, coveting something greedily, nor relaxed by extravagant mirth—such a man is that identical wise man whom we are inquiring for: he is the happy man, to whom nothing in this life seems intolerable enough to depress him; nothing exquisite enough to transport him unduly.”
      —Book 4, XVII, p. 142
  • pp. 3-4: “Jefferson said that the Declaration “was intended to be an expression of the American mind, resting on the harmonising sentiments of the day…”
  • p. 5: Rosen explains that the answers he wanted were “to the question of whether spiritual and moral truth could be obtained by reason rather than revelation by good works and reflection rather than blind faith….precisely the question the ancient philosophers had set out to answer.”
    • These philosophers mainly believed in absolute truth and strict order to the U/universe.
    • Aristotle’s syllogisms were deductive logic leading to truth (as long as you have valid premises).
      *Major Premise (assumed by audience)
      *Minor Premise (assumed by audience–either the Major Premise or Minor Premise is assumed)
      Therefore, a likely conclusion or a probable conclusion.
    • Example:
      All men are mortal;
      Socrates is a man;
      Therefore, Socrates is mortal.
  • p. 6: The pursuit of happiness to the ancients wasn’t “pursuit of pleasure” but “the pursuit of virtue–as being good, rather than feeling good.”
    • “…the dassical definition of the pursuit of happiness meant being a lifelong learner, with a commitment to practicing the daily habits that lead to character improvement, self-mastery, flourishing, and growth…happiness is always…to be pursued rather than obtained–a quest rather than a destination.”
    • Life’s a journey / Not a destination
      —Aerosmith. “Amazing.” Get a Grip. UMG Recordings, 1994.
  • pp. 6-7: Stoics tell us to “focus on controlling the only things that we have power to control: namely, our own thoughts, desires, emotions, and actions.”
  • p. 7: Live in harmony.
    • “Aristotle famously defined happiness as virtue itself, an ‘activity of soul in conformity with excellence.'”
  • p. 8: “What Cicero and Frnaklin called ‘virtue,’ therefore, might be translated as “good character.”
    • perhaps, ethos
  • p. 9: “…the goal of education was to strengthen the intellect, or reason, so that it could moderate and control the will and the emotions in order to achieve the self-control that was key to happiness.”
  • p. 10: “Franklin conduded that we need to use our powers of reason to check our immediate emotions and desires so that we can achieve the harmony of the soul that allows us to flourish, emphasizing that ‘all true happiness, as all that is truly, beautiful, can only result from order.'”
    • “impulse control”
    • “delaying short-term gratification for long-term character improvement, Franklin was summarizing the essence of the ancient wisdom.”
    • The Stanford Marshmallow Experiment
  • p. 11: John Locke on Cicero:
    • “we should control our desires through calm deliberation so that we come to realize that our true and substantial happiness will best be served by long-term self-regulation rather than short-term gratification.”
  • p. 11: Rosen believes American culture moved from privileging “being good to feeling good” in the 1960s
    • The myth of the universal assumption of 1960s “hippie” conformity
  • p. 12: “The Founders talked incessantly about their struggles for self-improvement and their efforts to regulate their anxieties, emotions, and perturbations of the mind. They tried to calm their anxieties through the daily practice of the habits of mindfulness and time management. Aristotle said that good character comes from the cultivation of habits…”
  • Of course, Rosen identifies a pretty stark contradiction in the support of slavery
    • “Jefferson and other enslavers from Virginia recognized that it was craven greed…that kept them from freeing those they held in bondage, even as they called for the ‘total emancipation’ of all enslaved people in the future.”
    • “…they were too dependent on the lifestyle slavery afforded them to consider the consequences of giving it up.”
    • Thomas Jefferson had lots of debt and needed to sell property to pay off his creditors. He even sold his library, which became the basis for the Library of Congress.
  • p. 13: “…the Founders believed that personal self-government was necessary for political self-government. In their view, the key to a healthy republic begins with how we address our own flaws and commit to becoming better citizens over time.”
    • “…the Constitution was designed to foster deliberation so that citizens could avoid retreating into the angry mobs and partisan factions that can be inflamed by demagogues.”
  • p. 14: “Madison would have urged us to think more and tweet less.”
    • “…not as boundless liberty to do whatever feels good in the moment but as bounded liberty to make wise choices that will help us best develop our capacities and talents over the course of our lives.”
    • “…the pursuit of happiness includes responsibilities as well as rights–the responsibility to limit ourselves, restrain ourselves, and master ourselves, so that we achieve the wisdom and harmony that are necessary for true freedom.”
  • pp. 14-15: “This was the classical understanding of the pursuit of happiness: the freedom to make daily choices about how to balance emotion and reason that lead to truth, order, harmony, ad wisdom, aligned with the divine will or the natural harmonies of the universe.”
  • p. 15: “that moderating emotions is the secret of tranquility of mind; that tranquility of mind is the secret of happiness; that daily habits are the secret of self-improvement; and that personal self-government is the secret of political self-government.”

Justice Louis Brandeis on Freedom of Speech

The last chapter of Rosen’s book begins with a famous quote from Justice Louis Brandeis’s opinion in Whitney v. California (1927) on freedom of speech, which was inspired by Brandeis’s reading of Thomas Jefferson (p. 263-264). I’ll quote the selection at length, and, time permitting, we’ll analyze this as a way to lead us into next class’s discussion on the Bill of Rights:

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties, and that, in its government, the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary. They valued liberty both as an end, and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness, and courage to be the secret of liberty. They believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that, without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile; that, with them, discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government. [Footnote 2–links to Jefferson’s arguments on free speech] They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject. But they knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies, and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones. Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law — the argument of force in its worst form. Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burnt women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. To justify suppression of free speech, there must be reasonable ground to fear that serious evil will result if free speech is practiced.
—Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

Whoa! Glad this doesn’t need to be reaffirmed today…How do we go from a discussion on ancient philosophers’ influences on the founders to a Supreme Court decision on freedom of speech?

Next Class

We’ll finish up any of Jeffrey Rosen’s chapter we didn’t get through today, and then it’s on to the Bill of Rights! Don’t forget Discussion Post #3 is due Friday, 9/19, 11:07pm.