038. The Shoemaker and the General. Aristotle on How to Deal With Adversity - Lunchtime Thoughts

How can we face adversity in our lives? Aristotle on the value of obstacles for achieving happiness and success.

In this series, we discuss interesting thoughts from philosophy and how they apply to everyday life, but we do it in small portions that you can listen to during a lunch break or a short commute.

Today, we have a look at what we can learn from ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle about facing adversity. Things that are dangerous or just annoying and that keep us from realising our best selves -- or at least this is how we perceive them. But could we be mistaken? Listen to this episode to find out!

Read more on the topic here on Daily Philosophy:
https://dailyphilosophy.substack.com/p/the-shoemaker-and-the-general

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hello and welcome back to the Accented Philosophy Podcast. I'm Andy philosophy lecturer, and this is a series of episodes where we try to live the classic theories of happiness. We will discuss how they work and how to apply them to our own everyday lives. Feel free to go back if you missed any episodes or if you need a refresher about what happened last week. And now let's jump in.

Speaker 1: 0:30

Last week, we talked about how to be rationally selfish and what it means to be selfish and at the same time benefit oneself and others. Today, we want to talk about an interesting statement of Aristotle. He writes in the Nicomachean Ethics If activities are what gives life its character, no happy man can become miserable, for he will never do the acts that are hateful and mean. So what exactly is Aristotle saying here? We have seen that he does not really believe in luck. It is interesting that in the German language, glück means at the same time happiness and luck, and even in English, happiness is related to the verb to happen, as if it was just something that randomly happens to some people. Aristotle, though, would very much disagree with any such notion. Happiness, for him, is earned. It is the result of a life lived in the right way, utilizing one's abilities to the full, exercising one's wisdom in always the right way, exercising one's wisdom in always the right way. And as a result of this wise use of our abilities, we always increase both our own benefit and that of everyone around us. The feeling of happiness is just the inevitable result of such a way of life, and it does not depend on any random events happening. And it does not depend on any random events happening. Aristotle explains this thought a bit more in the next few lines. He writes For the man who is truly good and wise with think, bears all the chances of life becomingly and always makes the best of circumstances, as a good general makes the best military use of the army at his command, and a good shoemaker makes the best shoes out of the hides that are given him, and so with all other craftsmen. And if this is the case, the happy man can never become miserable. Here Aristotle makes it clear that he does not believe in magic. It's not like being virtuous will automatically remove every bit of bad luck from the world. Even the wise and the virtuous can encounter problems, and even they can be unlucky, like everyone else. But the important point is what happens next? How does one react to the problems? How is one to face adversity?

Speaker 1: 3:18

Aristotle here takes the example of a general and a shoemaker, which are both skilled and honorable trades but which at the same time depend to a great extent on luck. Even the best general might happen to be given an army that is tired of fighting, lacking in equipment or that has been badly trained. Even the best shoemaker might occasionally have to make do with leather of a lower quality. Even the best shoemaker might occasionally have to make do with leather of a lower quality. No one has complete control over all circumstances that affect one's life, but and this is the point he is making the good general and the good shoemaker are able to achieve great results even with bad materials. It is easy to make a good shoe if one is perfect leather, perfect machines, perfect glue. It is easy to win a fight with an army that is perfectly trained, perfectly equipped, rested, well fed and in good spirits. Achieving these results under such good circumstances does not actually say anything about the abilities of the shoemaker or the general, but it is a sign of mastery to make a good shoe out of bad leather. It is a sign of greatness to win a fight with a tired, ragtag army. In more general terms, it is a sign of the truly good and wise person that they are able to have a good, beneficial life, even in situations of adversity and bad luck, like always.

Speaker 1: 5:08

Let's end with some thoughts on how to apply this insight to our own everyday lives. Let's spend this coming weekend looking at our own advantages and disadvantages in life. There's a lot of talk nowadays of privilege and entitlement, but even the most privileged among us have moments of bad luck Times, when things go wrong. They are also affected by diseases and by death. And, of course, there are far too many of us for whom life is an endless struggle against the unbearable hardships that constantly block their way. Poverty, bad health, no path to education and career exploitation at work these are the daily reality of millions of people, and every one of us will have some measure of that in our lives. Measure of that in our lives.

Speaker 1: 6:01

But what Aristotle wants us to realize is that hardships are the only way of actually showing what we are worth, proving that we do have developed the wisdom and the virtues to turn a bad situation around and to make the best of the cards that were given to us, just like the shoemaker who is still able to make a good shoe out of a cheap torn piece of leather. Every piece of bad luck is not so much an obstacle for Aristotle as it is a proof of noblesse and wisdom and an opportunity to do good that we would otherwise be lacking. This is why we should be grateful to those who are making our lives difficult, because what is the value of being generous if there is nobody out there on whom I can try my generosity? What is the value of forgiveness if there is no one to forgive? What's the value of courage if there is nothing there to scare me?

Speaker 1: 7:07

All worthwhile stories in human history, from the Odyssey of the ancient Greeks to Pixar's Finding Nemo, are stories of overcoming adversity, of fighting against the odds. For Aristotle, this is the best kind of story, and this is the kind of story that we should aim to tell with our lives. Thanks for listening. If you liked this, you will find more on daily-philosophycom or my weekly Substack newsletter, which is also called Daily Philosophy. Thank you and see you next time. Bye-bye.